In the Pacific Northwestern United States there are four distinct seasons, two with incredible contrasting “glory”, that is, presence—summer and winter. It strikes me as something to behold because it is new to me that the marked difference is not hot and cold as I have been accustomed to in the Midwest, but rather dry and wet. This year from the late Spring and throughout Summer to early Fall we.. Read More
Living and Seeing—Life
There are two doors. I was passing by the other after I had called them for dinner and caught this stacking up in the corner of my eye yesterday. Though I no doubt miss many of these moments, this preciousness caught me. Then this morning I realized I had taken a picture of their three older siblings a little earlier in the day. We had just finished a biology lesson… Read More
Take Us Into The Real: Teach Us How to Forgive
When summer was new and beginning here in Washington, we would walk along the river’s rocky shore and often comment to one another how we are firmly walking where so briefly ago there were waters raging so deeply and fiercely that it would be over our heads—literally. There were times this reality was so felt my body would momentarily shiver from the remembered force that would have swept us, all,.. Read More
For When We Lose Our Way
Contemplating “our daily bread” lately, in my world, makes more sense imagined like this image — but it feels good and satisfying and I want to capture that. That’s where this photo came from, a place in my soul that says, “take joy”…even if that is more instructive than felt presently. I’m on my way. Yeah, today — this first fresh day of the Biblical year 5779 — I have sought.. Read More
A Feast For When You Feel Like You Might Lose It, For When You’re Afraid
Friends, can we talk about those days when we sincerely wonder if we’re falling off the wagon? I remember the day all the mean words people at the grocery store said about all the kids I had born into this world finally hit me different. I had never liked it but it had rolled off before. But this day — this day it all hit a spot in me that.. Read More
Thresholds: The Way (every) Day, River, & Mercy Speaks Peace to Fear
So many thresholds being crossed this summer, I don’t know how or where to begin. I want to tell you all about it all. Knowing I can’t, I’ve been trying to gather and find the big picture in the miraculous, multitudinous details. Last fall when we arrived here, we played in the river, taking our shoes off and wading into the shallow parts even though it was chilly, we’d wait.. Read More
Walking in Health, Listening to The River: Simple Helps to Detox From Stress
The intensity of the river can be heard from our front road, an entire acre away. Its continual word, shh. It’s shushing us. Even as we turn to leave the drive, we’re being reminded. Shush. Maybe we’re learning. We’ve been practicing putting our hands over our eyes while we pray. We’re taking our sense of sight away briefly in hopes to notice it better when it is returned. Maybe, with.. Read More
For When Your World is on Fire
There are wounds that wind our souls so tight we quit breathing from our bellies. That’s how babies breathe. Until the pain comes, we breathe from our bellies. Then we swallow the pain down to our guts and kill ourselves—but we simply think we’re trying to survive. And, in reality, we are. What’s so horrible about that? Why should surviving make us sick? It’s this question I have to capture;.. Read More
Digging Into 2018: Honest Reflections for Clarity, Resolve, & Life Giving
It’s the sting of the words that we can’t form, the ache in our chest and our throat searching for the relief of understanding, of being understood, that makes us freeze sometimes. There’s a sense of paralyzation even while we’re still fully functioning—going, doing, being—but still no relief. Then when come the hard things up on the horizon, it can be enough to send us into hiding. Tired, we wonder.. Read More
Wanna Go For a Walk, Talk about my Hair & Let Me Say Thank You?
Hello Friends, It will be past Christmas day by the time you are reading this but that is when I am writing it. It is Christmas night to be exact and I am thinking of you each who have been journeying with me here and I want to tell you the blessing you are to me and how thankful I am for you. So I thought maybe we could go.. Read More