When You Don’t Know You’re Thirsty But You’re Dying and You’ve Lost Your Way
I’m here in the Sonoran desert of Arizona visting my dad who’s about to turn 83, his skin etched like this dry patch of earth where he has chosen to live out his later years. Here, there’s plenty of sun but a shortage of water. Even the air thirsts. Humidity hovers around ten percent on […]
Words That Fail Us, Words That Heal Us
When I met Laura Peterson for the first time at a writing workshop in Alaska, I knew we would become good friends. She is warm, funny, positive, loves her husband and their two daughters with abandon and she talks really, really fast. But she can slow. When she reads or hears something touching, she tears easily, which makes her […]
A Place For All God’s Creatures in His Special Upside-Down Economy
Our traditional Sabbath day family connection is a hike somewhere—anywhere on a trail through nature. It’s our ritual. Our comfort. The holy tie that binds. This past Sunday was one of those near-fall afternoons where temperatures slipped. Long sleeves and sweatshirts replaced the T-shirts of summer for the first time since June. Breezes blew stiff. […]
Why Burning Is Good For Our Souls
I answered my cell. “Hey Mom! The barn’s burning tomorrow. We’ll be there at 5:45. Everything’s going down except the house which we’re doing later. Are you coming?” “Of course! You know I wouldn’t miss it!” Zach, our nearly 22 year-old volunteer fireman, was about as excited as his pyromaniac mother. My friend Nancy and […]
When Black and White Mix With God, What Happens?
When worlds collide, what happens? Things can get ugly, even deadly, quickly. Then again . . . When worlds collide, what happens? God’s kingdom can expand. Last week, black met white as we marked our 8th annual Nature Camp here on our 44 acres of country. Long before we moved to this farm, we drove […]
Can God Be Trusted In The Dark?
When rain clouds obscure reality, keep looking forward in faith. And pray to be thrilled by the One who holds the rain—and you, even in the deluge. Two years ago, we were here in Denali National Park, Alaska, a vast wilderness of six million acres. Temperatures were warm, skies were clear and we learned […]
A Courage Undaunted
Ever felt on edge? Ever come to the edge of yourself? Ever pushed your edges—the places you’re not sure you can go, doing things you’re not sure you can do? Takes courage. Undaunted courage. In 1803, Meriwether Lewis was trained for the Corps of Discovery, commonly referred to as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, by […]
A Letter for My Father (and maybe you?)
Dear Dad, We have history, you and me. Like the time you made that multi-colored Styrofoam tower with me and it reached clear up to the ceiling. Even you needed a chair to place that last block, though in my mind you could touch the clouds without one. That’s what five year-old girls think of […]
In Other Words
The words of another, this weekend, for your gentle meditation. The words of Father Jacques Philippe from Searching for and Maintaining Peace . . . The habitual determination to always say “yes” to God, in the great things as in the small, is a sine qua non for interior peace. As long as we have […]
On Our Knees—Together
What you are about to read is true. Names are changed. Broken has no bounds. Broken affects us in a small farming community. Broken affects us all. But so does God’s grace—even more. God wants to love us in our broken. Will we let Him? Will we be part of the healing process? Or will we […]
Rest for Our Souls
Another rainy day here on the farm. Ah, Wisconsin! How variable is your weather! Yet, I will give thanks because this is God’s day. I will consider the good, the lovely, no matter the condition of the weather or the condition of a soul. I will give thanks and do what I can to make less-than-pleasing […]
A Stunning Love
“I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and […]