Salty like hot dogs (and tears). Sweet like marmalade (and life).
I can love you only when I meet you where you are, as you are, and treat you there as if you were where you ought to be. I see you where are, striving and struggling, and in the light of the highest possibility… Continue Reading “Highest Possibility”
The following prayer was written nearly six years ago when my mother was hospitalized. She was eventually discharged, but then died later that year. I share it today because I know so many people are now caring for their own elderly family members. I… Continue Reading “Bedside Prayer for an Aging Parent”
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1 (NIV) I’ve been fighting the Snark Monster in my heart the past few days. Every response that I begin to form in my mind to an on-line discussion goes… Continue Reading “A Gentle Answer”
There’s more beauty in the truth, even if it’s a dreadful beauty. John Steinbeck, East of Eden I talked to my counselor about East of Eden, telling her how I am being so disciplined about not reading ahead. Seriously, I’m not even flipping a… Continue Reading “Dreadful Beauty”
Arrogance is the opposite of humility. It compels us to treat our limitations not as unique openings through which God can reveal his goodness but as diseases to be cured. Susan Annette Muto O LordYou made me flawed I was about to say that… Continue Reading “Flawed”
I refuse to say that horrible man’s name. Donald Pollock When I brought my father to the hospital –whether for a scheduled visit to his primary care physician or an unscheduled one to the emergency room, the doctor would usually ask a few mental… Continue Reading “Mental Acuity”
We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us. C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm Lord, tonight I’m tired and weak —Accept these unpolished words I speak.I pray for peace but I sing of woeYou watched it… Continue Reading “Honest Prayer”
The time is comewhen the publication of poems is to be like that of pale and very light airborne seeds flowing in the current of forest air through the blue shadows, and falling on the grass where God decrees. I am convinced that we… Continue Reading “A Time of Small Letters”
And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2 O Lord,I know it’s not a question ofWho sinned, orWho made the firstFalse accusation Do You really careWho had the first violent protest, orThe… Continue Reading “Questions”
The first duty of love is to listen. Paul Tillich (Warning: a late-ish post after a long day. My sole New Year’s resolution was to write every day, and, doggone it, I’m not giving up in the first ten days of January!) My son… Continue Reading “Priorities”
