Home: A Pigeon Peace
So I’m in the home stretch, stretching for home. Since I was sixteen, I’ve been told I should write a book by many people in many places. Not that I’ve finished, but I’ve begun—what I don’t know—and I’m about to complete my first goal given by my soon-to-be-mentor for a week in Alaska. I can […]
Remember and Know
What do you do when your insides are just like your outside—rainy, foggy, soggy? What do you do when you feel like you’ll never see the sun again or feel its warmth? How do you hold onto faith when it’s dripping wet and slippery? When faith that should be warm by now is still cold […]
Casting Cares
Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you. Psalm 55:22 Todd and I are watching two loved ones wither, closing in on Heaven’s gate. And they want comfort—something to soothe their aching souls. The hardest part for both is letting go of their independence, their control, their freedom. They are siblings nearing […]
Mission Accomplished
Wonder what you have in common with the homeless? Our bus pulls curbside and stops. I see the red painted door on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Nestled between posh brownstone buildings in one of the world’s wealthiest neighborhoods is the Bowery Mission for Women. It’s a rescue mission—rescuing the homeless and helpless—for Christ’s sake. Warm hands […]
Remember
Face in hands, body bent in chair, I wept hard and long, pleading. “Lord, we don’t know what to do! We can’t see our way through! Help us!” And the vision of Israelites leaving Egypt—backs against Red Sea, enemies approaching—this vision burned bright like pillar fire leading God’s chosen through dark nights. He said […]
Plow
Seven acres of prairie grass turned upside down today. Tractor pulling plow tore earth straight up and exposed roots deep. And the wispy dried tan became raw umber chunks that will wait for weeding and planting and fertilizing in spring. This south field was once home to bobolinks and red-winged blackbirds greeting us on our […]
Breaking Open
Tight closed I feel this morning not wanting any other to know my thoughts or feelings. But I will write. My heart breaks and I wonder why God does not heal. Why God, don’t you heal these three young brains damaged by alcohol before their tender lungs sucked their first breaths of earth air? Why […]
Rest in Peace
West wind blows cold this morning as I zip my jacket and head to the barn. Cornflower-blue skies backdrop sunlit orange, yellow, and red leaves beginning to fall. Green has said its last goodbye to trees tucking in for the long, winter rest. Branches shedding jeweled adornment reveal themselves, bare and dark. Trees know they […]