Autumn is just about here, and I am grateful beyond words for so many things. Even as local and world upheavals distress my soul, so I breathe a prayer and turn my gaze to tasks at hand. What is my part to play in this maelstrom we call life with […]
In a Tilted World
Poison ivy, phone issues, a leaky sink, and tenacious weeds could have ruined my week. Lucky for me—life is bigger than bad moments, and free will is the true test of love. There is an old oak tree that stands on the edge of our property, and every time I […]
I’m Making Mine
Imogen trudged down the porch steps of her sister’s farmhouse, doing a quick kindness and her civic duty. She crossed the yard, lugging two large bags to the burn barrel while pattering footsteps followed close behind. She hoped it wasn’t the murdering demon that had kept her up half the […]
Menagerie of Hidden Influences
My synaptic mailbox is full. Sitting in a relatively quiet room—the birds are chirping outside, the downstairs refrigerator is rattling, and the drier is whirling about—I alternate my gaze from myriad unfinished projects to pictures and paintings covering the walls to the well-tended jungle growing just beyond my porch. In […]
Journey On
It amazes me that we humans ever understand each other given our robust ability to mess with syntax, translations, and meaning. Some years back, the kids and I visited my dad in Kansas. My youngest, only about five at the time, was very impressed by something my dad shared with […]
A Bit of Hell on the Way to Heaven
I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that workrooms must be messy, hamsters have to escape from cages, and household pipes and wires simply can’t work in harmony for any great stretch of time. Springtime means a general house cleaning. It also means the garden gets planted, chicks get hatched, and […]
Kingdoms of Our World
Of late, I’ve waged a war on carpenter bees, which seem heck-bent on burrowing holes throughout my porch to the point where I have to sweep sawdust off each morning. My attempts at repairing and staining only appear to alter their trajectory, not their aim. Little do they care how […]
Perspective
There is a vulture circling overhead, I wonder—why can’t it be a sparrow instead? The drier signals come-get-me-now with demanding beeps, I tell the dog, “Go get the clothes.” She blissfully sleeps. Sink clogged; floor sogged, Land bogged; mind grogged. Willow-whisps of complaint flitter through my head, Think of kindness, […]
See a Tree
Trees, in their giantess of spirit, talk to me on a daily basis. Thank God, or I don’t know who I’d go to for advice. It’s the end of a long day—a Monday to be exact—and as hectic, overflowing Mondays have the uncanny habit of following slow, afternoon-nap Sundays, I […]
Faith Based Schooling
One day I shared with my university professor father the name of a religious text I was using in my homeschool, and my dad snorted in disgust. “Use books with real material, for God’s sake!” The I-couldn’t-shoot-through-it-with-a-laser-gun irony was not lost on me. After all, every choice I made in my homeschooling […]