Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate . . . To my own surprise, I burst out with hot conviction. ~Florida Scott-Maxwell as quoted in Mindfulness, p. 93 I’ll call him John. He was a retired minister who lived in […]
Give Yourself Permission
I could hike Circle Bluff again. Or I could swim in Blue Hole. Or both. Or I could lay claim to a hammock. But I want to do art, I say. I used to do art. Crocheting, cross-stitching, soapmaking, scrapbooking, stamping, quilting. Painting–not so much. But doing art takes money. And there’s the clutter […]
Textures of Text: It’s a Mystery
All mystery feels like fog. It presents hiddenness. It demands strong faith to walk into it believing that one day it will be demystified. ~Luci Shaw It’s a mystery this hunger for the hidden, the faulty that aches for the faultless, the flawed that yearns for the flawless, how the best havings are in the […]
Textures of Text: Let’s Go All Word Wild
Perhaps the role of those involved in the arts, then, is to awaken ourselves and others to beauty–in all its risk and richness. ~Luci Shaw Let’s go all word wild. Let’s bound over boundaries and color outside the fence lines. Let’s open up new spaces within ourselves and dive in deep waters. Let’s be reckless […]
Textures of Text: Servant of the Word
Again, as so often before, I felt the secret thoughts rising in me, trusting them to be God-thoughts making themselves known. ~Luci Shaw breath of His breath I watch and wait spirit of the wild and untamed wind rushing water of many colors swirling dry bones dance to celestial tunes God-thoughts rise beauty to beauty […]
Through and Through Life: Holding My Breath
The Droid breaks into the night with its death rattle. I know I plugged it in before bed, but we are in the motel room with the sign that asks us not to use the towels to clean up dirt or cosmetics. The room where online time stutters. The room where one outlet doesn’t work, […]
Through and Through Life: Fresh Breath for My Very Soul
For me poetry and faith are interdependent. Each affects the other as they embrace and interpenetrate. Faith informs art, and art enhances faith. They both, for each other are breath for the bones. ~Luci Shaw in Breath for the Bones. It’s more than breath for my dry bones, this. It’s breath for my very soul, […]
Textures of Text: You Might Not Finish This Post
It’s a glitter globe night. Hundreds (thousands? more?) of lights flicker across the dark field. I can’t capture them with my camera. They rise up into and past the trees. Rising stars. Until it seems earth meets sky, and it’s hard to tell where the fireflies end and heaven’s lights begin. Each flash could represent […]
Textures of Text: Stone Crossings–Doubt
They come. Irritating like grit under a contact lens. Like a dog hair embedded in the sole of my foot. Slivers of doubt. They creep in unannounced, uninvited, and unwanted. How could a loving God allow thousands of souls to be swept out to sea? What if life really is all an accident? What […]
Reflections on @stickyJesus: Chapter 15
There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books. ~John 21:25 (Message) We’ve come to the end of this book. But really, it’s just the beginning. For me, anyway. You’ve […]
