Boardwalk creaks and groans
under foot; lily pads await
their lilies while a red-winged
blackbird practices whistling.
Cat tails bend and bow
in homage as Spirit
wind parts the path
before me.
Swing awaits on higher ground.
River sparkles, holy water
to douse my troubles.
A gentle rhythm pumps
my legs; to and fro,
to and fro, to and fro,
whispering, rest now,
rest now, rest now.
Eyelids flutter when golden
glimmer […]

I sit on the deck, the morning sun warming the back of my head, and listen to a choir of birds and cicadas as I drink my cup of tea. My silk robe softly flaps around my legs as a cool breeze blows in from the east. The sky is summer blue, and wispy […]

I sit on the deck in the (relative) cool of the evening. 96 degrees has dipped to 89, and a hint of a breeze plays through the walnut’s leaves in the humid soup of air. I sit, limp and dejected. While the humidity has frizzed my hair, anxiety over Joel’s new placement at Safe […]

I am on a heron search. Ever since that day when a great blue heron rose through mist on the roadside pond, immense wings beating with a slow, steady rhythm, flew parallel to my window for several beats, then ascended with a powerful surge over the car, out of my line of vision.
Those few strong […]

Reading Henri Nouwen’s book, Here and Now: Living in the Present, I am pierced by his use of the wagon wheel as a metaphor for our life with God. He writes, “These wheels help me to understand the importance of a life lived from the center. When I move along the rim, I can […]

“…(Jesus) said to Simon, “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.” Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining […]

“Faithfulness opens the door to the spiritual insight that it is not the amount of darkness in the world or in us that is crucial. In the end, it is how we stand in that darkness that really matters. Moreover, sometimes it is paradoxically during faithfulness in the darkness, not in the light, that we […]

Twenty-four years ago, I had no idea what the acronym MRDD meant (mental retardation and developmental disabilities), much less what the Hamilton County Board of MRDD was all about. Then our son Joel was born. It took awhile to get a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disabilities and Moderate Mental Retardation, and even longer to get […]

The following quote from Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, Gospel Medicine, grabbed me and wrestled me into a time of prayer this morning:
“…God (is) calling us to serve, certainly, but calling us first and last to stay as close as we know how to the one who has chosen us, to stay as close to the […]

I’m jolted from sleep when the heat-seeking-body-missile of my 24-year-old son lands next to me on the bed. I pry open sleep-encrusted eyes to encounter Joel’s face, two inches from my own. He grins, giving me an up-close view of his smile crinkles, just like his dad’s; little fans on either side of his […]