I grew up watching my mother bury the dining room table in craft supplies. Acrylic paints, custom wood pieces, raffia ribbon, pencils, stencils. She'd make placemats, welcome signs, and wooden snowmen for market. Oh, the markets! Or craft shows, as we mostly called them. Mom would set up shop and hang out all day long [...]
I've attempted to reread the Bible I don't know how many times, which means I've reread Genesis, and the Creation account in particular, a dozen times. Any encounter with Scripture offers something new. It's a little like leaving home to hike in another county or shop at new grocery store across town; you arrive home with [...]
The first time it happened, I thought maybe it was coincidence. The second time it happened, I knew it was real. Sometime after Thanksgiving, when our paper plates held another round of leftovers, Zach and I stopped to pray. It's out custom to pray before we eat, and we always hold hands. This time we [...]
I'm not in airplane mode and I'm not camping off the grid this Monday. With functioning wifi and a sleeping baby, I suppose I can post tonight. When November began, I naturally considered the concepts "thanks" and "giving." I settled on "contentment," and then flew to Texas for a Dia De Los Muertos wedding. We [...]
Read Ezekiel 18:24-32 A year of loss has me musing on the brevity of life. Age and health guarantee nothing. The unhealthiest of us live forever it seems; the youngest of us die before life begins. Death is sometimes senseless. It is mysterious. Spiritual death, which is the consequence of sin, is no less mysterious [...]
Read Psalm 103:13-17 When I moved from Texas to Butte, Montana, everything was different. The spring air was cold, the jagged earth elevated, and we felt lonely in that historic mining valley. Unwanted, maybe. I'd swing on that blue swing set the yellow Red Ryder truck had brought all the way from Wichita Falls and [...]
As I walked the cul-de-sac, looking at the stars and listening to DIY MFA Radio, Gabriela Pereira interviewed author and book coach Jennie Nash. They were speaking of that moment when a creator's brilliant idea hits the road, a shaky moment that can be gritty, ugly, and downright scary. It's that moment when you realize [...]
Read Genesis 1 I love to paint. Especially with oil. When I finally select a photo to paint, I first use a pencil to sketch the scene onto my canvas. Then, in accordance with what my high school art teacher taught me, I fill in the big spaces first. As a detail-oriented and eager person, [...]
T.S. Eliot's poetic line, "April is the cruellest month," always seemed a cruel statement to me. In my family, April is a celebratory time. It is September which is the cruelest. It is autumn which mixes "memory and desire." Almost all the great losses of my life all begin in autumn, though I have lost [...]