With small pangs of heartbreak, I allowed him to turn 6-years-old. Twice that day he leaned close and whispered: I’m six. He’s trying it on. He’s turning, we’re all turning; officially exiting “Chapter of the Small Child.” (sigh) We’ve spent a lot of time here. Years ago, when I tossed my graduation cap high in [...]
*Several weeks ago, when the 5-year-old whispered up to me during the worship service: Why don’t miracles happen NOW?…I thought of the modern-day healings and visions I’ve read about, but I knew he meant: Why can’t I see a miracle? Tonight I heard a pastor speak about God found in places we don’t think to [...]
One of the most beautiful things about the Thanksgiving table is that in the name of gratitude, people come together, gathering their best plates, family recipes, laughing children, a year of stories. This is the way we celebrate. Despite a flailing economy and a multitude of reasons for sorrow, we celebrate the evidence of a [...]
Must.Write.Now. It’s a bit obvious when the songwriter in this house has stayed away too long from writing, because she starts getting just a LITTLE bit grumpy. A TINY bit irritable. Easily IRKED. Not by political leaders or financial crises or even by semi-big deals like being behind (again) on emails or (chronically) filing paperwork. [...]
Steve Jobs died. And a few days after that, I wept as I drove home from Tennessee. Because of Steve Jobs? Not exactly…but sort of. I’d just started down the long gravel drive, my parents waving in the rearview mirror, shouting their love…and suddenly all these years of being alive here together were also disappearing [...]
I heard the front door close behind him before I was even out of bed. I’d overslept. Now I’m slurping coffee and lighting candles, reading from the One Year Bible. Sizzling sausage. This is the tranquil intro. Tapping out a bass line in email responses. I can hear the rushing water of the shower upstairs [...]
And by “she,” I mean me. Or I. Whatever. That’s the point. I’m turning less young this week, and I’ve been learning…slowly..painfully slowly… the art of letting my SELF…go. Before I ever again look at a woman and think “sad how she’s let herself go,” I’m going to lean in (which, granted, might cause her [...]
Although my brain is a constant buzz of activity, I find it hard to, carve out time to journal. Most weeks the best I can muster is the jotting of 3 or 4 sentences of prayer and a few song ideas on scraps of paper, alongside the “get milk & eggs” list. Solitary time is [...]
She’s nearly 16, but her face is un-made-up, baby soft. Her way of dressing, her way of carrying herself, not typical of her generation; she is both older and younger than her peers. At one moment she bashfully tucks herself behind her father – and then she can’t help herself, and her mouth opens and [...]
If you want to make a musician really happy, give us a chance to play side by side with some of our favorite fellow artists. It’s just…well…it’s just special. Like a kid in a candy shop. And it doesn’t hurt that some of the pressure of carrying a whole concert by yourself is relieved. I [...]
