The Burning
I’ve come to start a fire… —Luke 12:49-56, The Message In the days when a hearth fire kept the family alive, our ancestors learned to bank the fire before they went to sleep, pushing the logs and coals together to preserve the slow burning. It was important to keep it smoldering through the night, ready to […]
A Soul’s Worth
The direction she gave was exactly as my mother taught, so I knew it to be a perennial truth, even though I was five years old. Our kindergarten teacher, Ms. Olive Garrett, took Richard by the hand, whispering in his ear, showing him how to share the wooden blocks he was hoarding. I was the student […]
A Rising Song
The word came to me as a waking dream, right in the middle of a Lenten fast that had been hard. A sharp reminder that I have the power to sing, even in the darkness. To dance without music. To see daylight through the dark veil of war, be it within or without. The tears remind me […]
Songbird
It’s the first thing I see each morning as my feet hit the floor. A watercolor print of a great mother bird sheltering someone underneath her wings. It is unclear what kind of person it is. What is clear is the look of fear and desperation on their face, hidden within a safety so tenuous. With reverence, I stand each […]
