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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Mindless Drifting
It’s dark when I head to the porch this morning. Dark and chilly and windy. I wrap the Dora blanket around my legs and rock while the trees sprinkle my face. I note a light on at Abby’s, and I wonder if everything is okay and think about texting, but I don’t. I hear semi […]
My Window View~Doo Dew
It’s been an interesting week. My uncle, my mom’s older brother, passed away. Abby told me that she thinks being booted from all her classes (18 mostly business credits) this semester because of an email fluke was a blessing in disguise. She thinks she’d rather be a teacher. She also told me that her probable […]
Sitting and Sipping and Seeing
The sky glittered last night with a billion Hand-tossed diamonds. The blackness was so clear. This morning I take a cup of tea (not coffee) and the Dora blankie to a porch rocker. (L.L. Barkat will be pleased to know I spent 55 minutes out there.) The sky is crinkled with gray. But as I […]
I See Glory
The dark begins to fade gray and the world looks like my bathroom after a shower. The fog has come on little cat feet. It sits on silent haunches and looks over the field. Waiting. In the spirit of God in the Yard, I pour a cup of coffee in my Michigan mug (I know […]
Today In the Yard
Today’s the day. The day I start working my way through God in the Yard. For the rest of me. I know L.L. will ask me to spend time outside. Daily. It all starts with the sight of a nibbled mozzarella medallion. Fascinated with the morning clouds, gray tide moving east to west, I take […]
Seeing Pink (and Tired of it)
This was originally my in-law’s bedroom. This morning I lie in bed and look at my bedroom walls–pink walls. And sigh. Yes, pink. My husband and I have inhabited this pink room for eight years. With the sky blue ceiling. Don’t ask me why it’s blue. I can’t remember. It’s at least an improvement over […]
