Sacredness requires specificity. The grand esoteric themes of theology have their place, but love takes root in those specific moments when we voluntarily and intentionally enter one another’s pain. “God so loved the world” makes sense when love has a name and is lying in the manger. The Incarnation (big theological concept) comes alive in [...]
Categories: Books,God,Introspection,Library
(Picture by Mark File.) Does every mother believe that her child is exceptionally musical? My kid loves music. He dances around strumming his blue guitar and he requests certain songs and he pretends to sing into a microphone. On Sunday, we had an idea that we could maybe keep Atticus in the service with us [...]
Categories: Family,General,God,Intentional Parenting
On the last night of Glen East, we had a worship service. At the end of the service, my priest friend explained that we were being anointed to remind us of our calling as artists. “Beauty will save the world,” Image declares. They wanted us to know that what we had done all week was [...]
Categories: God,Introspection
Atticus and my grandma. When I was 14 or 15, I was handed a copy of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King. I have written about it several times, so all I will say here is that reading about a girl my age who could mentally keep up with Sherlock Holmes was a game [...]
Categories: Family,General,God,Intentional Parenting,Introspection
I could sing the praises of the wild, untamed grace I have experienced. Kind words at just the right time. Forgiveness, given and received. The ability to grow and change. The beauty of common graces, if I will only have eyes to see them. But sometimes I think we talk about grace so much that [...]
Categories: God,Intentional Parenting,Introspection
Atticus has been sick constantly over the past month, fighting ear and sinus infections. I am not the first to note the desperation that comes with being the parent of a sick child, when you have tried everything you can do and still he cries out with pain and discomfort. It was on one of [...]
Categories: Books,God,Intentional Parenting,Introspection
Last year, I resolved to lose weight in 2011. And on 1/1/11 at 1:08 pm, I lost 6 pounds and 15 ounces. Plus the placenta (sorry). I kept that weight off. I think this means I win at New Year’s, achieving my goal on January 1st. Other than that, I am not big on resolutions. [...]
Categories: General,God,Intentional Parenting,Introspection
What kind of king would leave his throne In heaven to make this earth his home? While men seek fame and great renown In lowliness our king comes down Incarnation is a big word. It means the Word made flesh and dwelt among us. It means angels and shepherds and a stable. It means The [...]
Categories: God
Mighty God, by your love we are given children through the miracle of birth. We give you thanks for them. May we greet each new son and daughter with joy, and surround them with all faith, so they may know who you are and want to be your disciples. Never let us neglect children, but [...]
Stack by Kate Andrews. Happy Shrove Tuesday! I have only been to church once since Christmas Eve. There was snow and then Atticus and I am finally just at the point where I recognize the days of the week again. This past Sunday I stayed on the couch in my pajamas. It was raining. Atticus [...]
Categories: Family,God,Introspection
While digging through Susan Isaacs’ archives, I found this gem about writing as a sacrament. It got me thinking about sacraments, about sacred and healing things that happen in life. If, as The Book of Common Prayer says, sacraments are “an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible Grace,” it almost seems as [...]
Categories: General,God,Introspection
A few years ago, I read Father Martin’s wonderful memoir My Life With the Saints. He commented on that original review, and he was probably the first author to ever comment on my blog, which was extremely gratifying. That’s one thing I really appreciate about the internet: it is so easy for me to get [...]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitzcelt/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Go on up to the mountain of mercy To the crimson perpetual tide Kneel down on the shore Be thirsty no more Go under and be purified Follow Christ to the holy mountain Sinner sorry and wrecked by the fall Cleanse your heart and your soul In the fountain that [...]
Categories: God
What a beautiful piece of heartache this has all turned out to be. -Over the Rhine http://www.flickr.com/photos/dizzygirl/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 I am well aware that being a thirty-something and quoting “Latter Days” on my blog is the ultimate in cliches. But when it comes down to it, I’m not sure I know of any [...]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtsofan/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 “If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent If the unheard, unspoken Word is unspoken, unheard; Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard, The Word without a word, the Word within The world and for the world; And the light shone in darkness and Against [...]
I enjoyed this post by Don Miller, which is sort of about what Pat Robertson said about Haiti but which is mostly about being thoughtful about your faith and thoughtful about what it means to respond to people who, it seems, are not being very thoughtful at all. This, for me, was the pertinent quote: [...]
Categories: General,God,Introspection
The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created [...]
Categories: General,God,Introspection
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciamabue/ / CC BY 2.0 When Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am,” he did us no favor, but further fragmented us, making us limit ourselves to the cognitive at the expense of the imaginative and the intuitive. But each time we read the gospels, we are offered anew this healing reconciliation and, if we [...]
Categories: God
This is a poem by Todd Boss. I found it on this Wisconsin Public Radio page when I was looking for poems to post for the solstice. I am a little tired of rehashing “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (“the darkest evening of the year”) every year, and I liked that the NPR [...]
A few years ago, I read a book called All This Heavenly Glory by Elizabeth Crane. The quote that the title comes from (from a Bruce Lee movie, of all places) has stayed with me: “If you gaze too hard at the finger pointing to the moon, you’ll miss all the heavenly glory.” I think [...]
Categories: Books,God,Introspection