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 [...]
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 [...]
When I told him it’s about self-control, saying “no” to yourself…his lips pursed and his eyes stayed on the floor. Pleadingly, anger just under the buckling cellar door, I say: “You feel like screaming and hitting me, but it’s not okay to do those things. Do you understand?” Chin out and trembling, he looks up, [...]
I didn’t grow up with my hands in the dirt. I never planted anything in any of the yards of any of the houses we called home over those years. It was Grandma, who lived with us, who set roses in the beds. Grandma on her knees in the same old paint-stained brown jeans she [...]
From The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions: Heavenly Father, Thou hast led me singing to the cross where I fling down all my burdens and see them vanish, where my mountains of guilt are leveled to a plain, where my sins disappear, though they are the greatest that exist, and [...]
Santa Semana–Holy Week–is a week to weigh costs. Fuel is nearly $3/gallon, unemployment at 9%…the $3 coffee that seemed nothing a year ago we now hesitate or pass on. We feel the emptying of the bank account as we pay utility bills, mortgage, car… But this is a week to consider the price tag on [...]
Today I repost my reflections on the time I spent in 2010 with high school students at one of the best creative arts camps out there, along with a note written by one of our students. This is where you’ll find me every late July and where I am personally encouraged and challenged by an [...]
I’ve been thinking about you… You waking with anxiety, curling up at night with anxiety, and carrying her wrapped around your middle like a boa constrictor. Squeezing out life with not enough time, not enough talent, not enough money, not enough friends, not enough… I know it personally. The pet who continually tears up your furniture [...]
*Friends! Thanks for spreading the word about this little retreat. We SOLD OUT in 4 DAYS! Wow. Please add your name to the waiting list if you missed it (you never know) – and stay tuned. We are working on the possibility of adding another date for this retreat in the next few months. Maybe [...]
I’ll admit I wondered. Can it be Christmas if there is no bread pudding? Will we feel the awesome joy & delight & anticipation if we have few decorations and no family and neighbor-friends. If we don’t attend a Christmas Eve candlelight service? If I have no piano? Without parties and shopping and glowing fireplace, [...]
