Finding Joy on the Journey in Faith, Family, and all Things in Between.
My foot always landed with part of my heel over the line or my toe inching into the next box. I blame the fact that my feet outgrew my body and while I jumped and landed solidly, my sturdy little frame balancing in the boxes, I always seemed to be not quite in the right spot when my feet touched the ground. We'd dump the carton of chalk, always white never the rainbow hues, and scratch out our … [Read more...]
Writing lends itself to a process. There are stages and maturation of story that mimic the seasons of pregnancy and birth An idea implanting, as it germinates somewhere deep inside you. Hardly even aware of its presence and the role it will have in the rest of your life but it's forming and coming together. The rocky sway of sickness as it takes hold. The clutching of your sides and the tilt … [Read more...]
For the rest of her life she will be my little girl. My only girl. In a week, she will be 8 years old. Today, she clung to me in a moment of high strung emotion uncommon for her. As her sleepy eyes welled with tears and she pushed her face into the curve just above my hip, into the fleshy part of my side, the spot where she curls herself into when we snuggle for story time or she bruises her … [Read more...]
If church should look like family, and family connects over bonds made, blood shared, vows taken, and years lived together, how do we become family as a church? How do we find the home where our hearts settle into community? In most churches, we sit in rows or pews, or folding chairs facing forward. We may engage the message and punch out notes on our YouVersion app or in the torn off section … [Read more...]
Five Minutes on Ordinary I must have refreshed the page a hundred times. Staring at the number that wouldn't budge. Stomach clenched and churning. What started out as lofty ambition, a stepping out of my comfort zone to fling wholeheartedly into a project I passionately believed in, was leaving me with fear of failing spectacularly. I had a lot more to raise and my voice seemed to be thinning … [Read more...]
Five Minutes on: Bare We loved in that bare shouldered way of a man and woman. Of shared breath and space and warmth. I was a girl, really. Only nineteen, not even old enough to drink champagne on our honeymoon. He was twenty, broad-shouldered and ready to carry me into our life. The weight of it all still light as he carried me across the threshold and we laughed and tried to maneuver … [Read more...]
Every week I write with a gang of courageous storytellers who gather time and again to share lives, and burdens, and blessings, and the everyday ordinary that pulses just beneath each word prompt. And every week it's different. But we all share one thing in common. We are all there to write, from the novice hobby blogger to the aspiring author to the published. We know words mean … [Read more...]
Sometimes it's uncomfortable to know they have read the very inner workings of your madness, your depravity, your grief. Sometimes your joy isn't yours alone but is shared with those who you've never even seen. And you wonder at it all. Where a click of a mouse can mean your life spread open. You want this, you've asked for it. Community, and being known, real and whole and true. And you wonder … [Read more...]
I expected outlines and three-point presentations on famous people. The kind you find on Wikipedia. Maybe Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Theresa, a singer, or a sports hero. Someone who lived big and wide and whose impact could be seen rippling out into these children's consciousness. Instead I witnessed each child's presentation on Someone They Admire and Why, spoken in reverent tones about an … [Read more...]
Give us your best 5 minutes on Dive He says there are those who create and those who copy. But aren't we all imitators in a way? Aren't we the composite of thoughts, experiences, and emotions. Aren't we all saying things that have been said a million times over, echoed throughout history and laid down in texts scratched on papyrus and stamped in clay. Don't we all have a common story? … [Read more...]
This weeks prompt: Thank You This week we gathered in homes, wrote our thanks and spoke them out, made lists of blessings on paper shaped like fall leaves, sent praise to heaven as we gathered. And I mourned a little bit. I've been absent from this blog since last week, which also happens to be the 2 year anniversary since my father passed away. I just didn't have words to … [Read more...]
The song is set to repeat. We do it 7 times, complete with hand motions for Age of Imperialism, Queen Victoria, Empress of India 1877, 1948, assassination, passive resistance, India's independence, Mohandas Gandhi . It takes our fingers and bodies to make the memories etch into our muscles, our minds. And it works. I remember obscure dates and facts about Columbus, Westward Expansion, the split … [Read more...]
This weeks word: Quiet I stand quiet and still as the nurse pushes the small silver scale along looking for a balance that I have never found. She jots down the number on my chart. Asks me my height, fixes the cuff on my arm and I feel the constriction. The pressure pushing in on me. I hate doctors appointments. Partly because the role of patient is one I've had far too many times in my … [Read more...]
I had the gorgeous pleasure of writing live and sharing my post at open mic during Allume. My all time favorite group of gals was there writing along with me and I was honored to share the same space and writing wonder with them all. You guys, these women pour their hearts out in 5 minutes, without over thinking, without the pressure of editing, or backtracking, or rules. We just do what we love. … [Read more...]
I'm coming to you live from Allume with Lisa Jo and a bunch of the wonderful five minute Friday lovelies that I've spent the last 10 months getting to know. We wrote and shared and spoke into each other's lives and it was beauty. So here's my five minutes on Voice. I am tired. I overschedule things, I undersleep, I overstress, I underpray, I overeat, I underexcercise. I am … [Read more...]
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