Thankful even for what’s been thrown away

You may have seen this on Faceboook or somewhere else online, but it’s amazing, so I had to share it here, too. Like nature abhors a vacuum, I abhor waste, and that includes wasting people, so I’m really touched by projects like this that take what has been discarded and turn it in to something…

Thoughts on a Friday

…we are ‘splendid, never-to-be-duplicated stories of grace.’ -Eugene Petersen (quoted by James Bryan Smith in The Good and Beautiful Community)

Good stuff

I’m still dealing with the aftermath of the apples, and I’ll I’ve got to say today is that if you haven’t made it over to Life in the Shoe yet, you really should. Her Wall Words for People Like Us made me laugh out loud. Here’s just a taste: In this home we are family…

Wisdom of the ages

I love the scriptures collected into what we call “the Bible” for all sorts of reasons, but one of them is that they are just so true.  And I don’t mean only in a Revealed Truth esoteric sort of way but in a very down to earth, matter of fact sort of way. I recently…

A wet Wednesday and some links

It’s a quiet evening of watching dark clouds roll in followed by rain drops dancing under the street lights while thunder rumbles overhead.  We need the rain, and it’s a lovely storm.  It seems to be doing fine every time I step out onto the porch to check on it.  😉 If you’ve never checked…

Thoughts on a Friday

A story must be told or there’ll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving. ~J.R.R. Tolkien

A Portrait of Stan (or how I read the news)

Six years ago, I wrote the story below.  I hadn’t though of it for some time until hearing from a friend of mine who is in the same city experiencing basically the same thing all over again.  In a way, the last paragraph sums up how I try to follow the news (especially since so…

Finding hope again when things have gone sour…

When you end up with sour milk, perhaps it’s time to bake some bread.  And what was ruined ends up exercising your muscles and warming the kitchen, and nourishing us, all of us broken. And with this simple action, we begin to mend, to reclaim what was lost, to find wholeness again through the wounds…

Spanish Lessons

I can’t remember her name, but maybe I could show you the way to her house, just down the winding, cobbled street from the Church of Saint Bartholomew. As I drank cocoa in the kitchen, should I have paid more attention? Not pretended not to notice the dingy floor and battered plastic-ware, the meager cupboards…

The Stories They Don’t Tell Us

  James died. His story cut short by the sword. No details except that it was a matter of political expediency, and pleased the people. No details. No approving Paul on the sidelines or final prayers of despair or forgiveness. Is the mention a footnote, a parenthetical, an aside? A bridge to Peter’s miraculous release? …