Saturday, October 1 It’s been raining for three days. Muddy waves churn from the newly dug drain field in the side yard. I’m wearing a Tshirt when I meet D at the airport. I take along a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and a jacket. He changes in Bob Evans’ restroom. His blood has […]
How to Face Winter with Hope
About hope and Haiti and purpose in later years.
Haiti: Is It Enough?
Sophonie scratches words on peach-colored concrete with a sliver of yellow chalk. She points to them and then to herself. “God. Me. Father. Mother.” I pull her close and nod. “Yes. God. He’s your father and your mother.” And He’s enough. Jeffrey’s fifteen, he says. He speaks English. I ask how long he’s […]
Still Saturday: It Is Time Now
Swimming, One Day in August It is time now, I said, for the deepening and quieting of the spirit among the flux of happenings. Something had pestered me so much I thought my heart would break. I mean, the mechanical part. I went down in the afternoon to the sea which held […]
Live Happy: What Happiness Means To Me
Every year my heart pounds for our hometown Alpenfest Queen’s Pageant contestants during the impromptu question time. I still remember the question I drew when I ran a bazillion years back: “What does happiness mean to you?” I stammered an answer I’m sure was unintelligible. Afterwards, my mom told me I should have said something like, “Happiness means […]
God On His Knees
I spoke once, maybe twice that day during an Emmaus Walk. I’d given my best, and what energy remained leaked through the cold metal of the folding chair and pooled on the floor. I sat towards the back of the conference room, and I wanted to be engaged with what the next speaker shared. But […]
On Poetry, Cracking and Other Stuff
I’m a bit breathless and cracked, broken and wrecked. And yet full, complete, repaired. Re-paired with renewed passion but still trying to find my balance after the last three months. In November, I made my now annual trek to my other home in a Texas canyon–Laity Lodge for a High Calling retreat. Then there was Thanksgiving at […]
Still Saturday: Season
Someone more organized than I am would have had a post prepared and queued to publish last week. But I found myself in Haiti without Internet access. And so it was really still around here on Still Saturday. Forgive me. I had a heart-wrenching and heart-filling week with stories I’ve not yet processed to share. It […]
Without First the Breaking
E’s mother shut her and her sister out of the house because she could no longer care for them. C was reclaimed from a trash heap in the worst part of Port Au Prince. She was about five years old, scarred and burned, abused and cast away. I met her two years ago on […]
Haiti: When It’s Time to Say Goodbye
We’ll say goodbye today. I make construction paper cards before we go. Erica’s brought a printer and given me a couple mini photos–one of Sophonie and me, and one of Chilanchi and me. I stick them to the paper. “Jezi renmen ou,” I write. “Mwen renmen ou.” Jesus loves you. I love you. It’s our […]
