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: Rest for the Weary
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ~ Matthew 11:28 Few people know how to rest these days. Even on vacation, many people rush to cram in as much as they can before returning to their jobs, where they spend twice as much energy […]
Still Saturday: Your Days Are Waiting
Your Days Are Waiting There’s certainty made in the calm of a river–a way steady like the leaves that paper-boat the surface of water. Even a clamor of hooves throbbing in purple morning light narrows us–a waking in every wilderness. But even these things fall asleep inside the mind and slip away by night. […]
Drink Up All
How many times have I traveled this road as it bends and curves? Enough lately so I dare to look around and let the Journey carry me. It downshifts itself to climb. Carmine and golden hills surround me. I’m in ski country. My dad says this road was once an Indian trail that led from Petoskey to Alpena. Gray […]
Still Saturday: Quiet
It is a hard art to learn, catching quiet by palms raised cupped in air shifting location here and there like trying to guess the pattern of falling leaves, and hoping to feel the soft descent of moments when silence slips between sounds. ~Enuma Okoro from “Passing Ordinary Time” as found in At the Still […]
When Hospitality Is Caked With Dust
Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. (1 Peter 4:9 ESV) My dad’s told the story a quadrillion times. How I overheard him say he’d like fish and fried potatoes for breakfast. So one morning I rose early (Dad says I was probably only 10 years old), grabbed my fishing pole and a can of […]
Still Saturday: Time
“I speak it to God: I don’t really want more time; I just want enough time. Time to breathe deep and time to see real and time to laugh long, time to give You glory and rest deep and sing joy and just enough time in a day not to feel hounded, pressed, driven, or […]
Dreaming With Darwish: Forms of the Dream
“Tell me how you lived your dream in some place, and I’ll tell you who you are.” ~Mahmoud Darwish It started as just a 30-day dream dare with Mahmoud Darwish. It’s been 60 days, and I’m not done with him yet. This poetry dare arrived in two parts: first, read a poem a day […]
There Is No Hurry
There is No Hurry I pour tomatoes and chop sweet onion, snip parsley frills and crush some basil, dash salt, sprinkle sugar. Stir. I race against the clock. Hurry. A tasty sauce takes time to simmer, but hungry stomachs will arrive at six. I rattle glasses, bang the stainless, wash and wipe. Outside a silver needle […]
Still Saturday: Wilderness ( And Giveaway)
I didn’t dare tell anyone I had grown soft for Nebraska. But on the inside, I found myself marveling at the astounding vastness of the cornflower blue skies that unfurled each morning right over my head. I was captivated by the way the sunlight skipped around on actual amber waves of grain. […]
