Tag Archive | family
A Measure of Elf Awareness
I’ll just admit it. The Elf on the Shelf creeps me out. I mean, something that watches every move I make, reports back to Santa, and can run around my house at night? No, thank you. Jenny, the fabulous Bloggess, expressed distaste for said elf more aptly and colorfully than i ever could. But don’t […]
Week 1, Day 2: Homecoming
They say reflections in the wake of an aircraft carrier are many.
Leaving me to wait, a war ship sailed away with its crew of 5,000—and 80,000 tons of floating airbases– to conduct flight operations from Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of Vietnam. The year was 1969, and after 14 years of marriage to a navy man, this was not the first ship that had sailed away with my heart and soul mate.
How God Gets Stuff Done
It seems Mr Mourdock didn’t get the message–that when God wants to get something done, and there is no penis in the room, $*^! still manages to get done. There was this whole virgin birth thing that maybe he didn’t hear about. But hey, Christmas is coming! Maybe somebody will tell him…Somebody tell him the story of how no male body parts were required to bring the Son of Man into the world.
The Great American Road Trip
What is it that keeps us moving? What are we looking for? I’ve wondered about this all my life. When we’ve got literally everything we could ever want or need at our fingertips, why do so many of us keep wandering the varied landscape, as if it can tell us some deep and abiding truth […]
A Perfect Day
Following a pretty rotten day, the universe will sometimes throw you a nearly perfect one. Or maybe it’s just that, for me, two consecutive rotten days are unacceptable. In any case, yesterday= pretty dang crummy. Today, however, rolled something like this: Day started, per usual, with a small girl crawling into bed with me and […]
A Moving Picture
My 3-year-old has a new catch phrase response for when you ask her a question and she doesn’t know the answer. Or at least, doesn’t have the words handy. She says, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen the movie yet.” Now, somewhere in her quickly-developing brain, there is a very literal connection in there, something that […]
The Mercy Instinct
As a pastor, I see it time and time and time again: a person has been deeply wounded by a loved-one. They struggle to process the world through this new lens of heartbreak. It doesn’t matter if it is a sibling, a spouse, a friend, or a parent/child relationship –we are hurt most profoundly by those […]
Good Stuff
How do we develop a taste for good things? Is it an acquired taste, cultivated by careful nurture? Or are some of us just born with a hunger for life that drives us through every transition, challenge and heartache with the promise of good news on the other side? I ask my 3-year-old, “What are your favorite things?” I […]
Day 2; Burgers, Burritos and Beginnings
Ok, so we start. Read back a day if you want to know why i’m recounting the best meals i ever ate. Basically, I figure that reflecting on the divine dining experience will keep me from eating crap like, you know, cheeseburgers. So why am i starting my ‘best meals ever’ series with a cheeseburger? […]
Why “Stay-Home-Dad” and “Mr Mom” are Not the Same Thing
Well. If I thought that telling people I was a minister could elicit a “does-not-compute” expression, imagine the gazes that accompany the latest addendum to the conversation: “…and what does your husband do?” “well, he recently quit his job to stay home with the kids.” buzzing, clicking, whirring noises. Still processing the chick-preacher component… “Oh, […]
Irreverin 