Have you ever found yourself tapping your foot and thinking (or begging out loud), “Just get to the point?” Getting straight to the point is apparently not that sticky. And perhaps not the strongest way to inspire action. As it turns out, there’s more power in a story. A good story fires up our neurons […]
Good Morning, Deer
I planned to write my “sticky” post today, based on chapter 6 of Made to Stick. But I’ve had a long and busy day. It’s now very late, and I’m very tired. So I’ll think about that tomorrow. But I didn’t want to leave you without something. This morning I was moving quickly around the […]
Attention ~ In More Than 140 Characters
The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. ~Henry Miller
Harvest
Anticipation hangs in the morning air. Hey, do you fellas hear something? Yeah, I hear it! Run for your lives! The harvest has begun. Chopping, shredding, stripping, flinging. Leaving only stubble. And spewing forth the gold. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store […]
Outside Inside
This is the penthouse. Where I do most of my study and writing these days. From here I can look out over yard and field and woods. It used to be my husband’s room. He remembers oven summers and freezer winters. He remembers lying on his bed and peeling away layers of wallpaper, vaguely remembers […]
Tuning Up in the Pink
I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. ~George Washington Carver I got a package in the mail yesterday. I didn’t remember ordering anything that felt like clothes. But there inside was a soft pink fleece shirt. Along […]
All Lined Up
Okay, so I managed to whip up this little ditty while gazing out my office window. All lined up dressed to the T’s shoulder to shoulder hip to hip and clip to clip on vinyl pews swaying in the spirit and waving praises in hallelujah colors. For One Shot Wednesday.
Waiting in the Yard
In the end, this is the most hopeful thing any of us can say about spiritual transformation: I cannot transform myself, or anyone else for that matter. What I can do is create the conditions in which spiritual transformation can take place . . . ~Ruth Haley Barton (via God in the Yard, chapter 2, […]
Hymns, Heartbreak, and Healing
Fractured hearts and ragged emotions. Some in our church are hurt and angry and scared. Because we’re going through change. Major change. Last month we switched from two Sunday morning services–one traditional and one contemporary–to one single service. Generations no longer divided. And our pastor believes this is of God. That He is leading us […]
Buying Bread on a Monday
I just spent a fat chunk of today’s thin time in the bread aisle. I needed a basic loaf of bread. That’s all. The doughnut case called to me with its array of warm-glazed oily cakes melting puddles on parchment. I pressed nose to glass and drooled. But the mood quickly passed when I spied […]
