“With all it’s sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.” Max Ehrman
I can’t tell if I’m running my life, or if it’s running me. It happens every year. As summer approaches I dream of lazy pool days, restful rhythms, playful adventures, and maybe even some spiritual renewal thrown in for good measure. My intentions are admirable, even if they are hopelessly unrealistic. Still, it’s a humbling … Continue reading Reset
I didn’t tend. I didn’t water, or fertilize, or weatherize. I did prune - once. And yet it blooms. I look at these roses before me, bigger than my hand, and wonder how such beauty can blossom from such human negligence. “I planted the seed,” Paul ruminated, “and Apollos watered, but it is God who … Continue reading Here is your reminder to breathe.
I haven’t been bored since 2005. Yet here I am, swinging in a hammock, waiting for the Covid brain fog to dissipate. Sure, there’s plenty of work to do, but I find I can’t concentrate for long. So, I take breaks. I lay in the sun. I listen to the birds. I count the leaves … Continue reading The Blessedness of Boredom
I've often heard it said that all of Jesus' friends abandoned him on that Good Friday, his time of greatest need. But it needs to be said that not all of his friends disappeared into the darkness of the moment. A few were there, at the foot of the cross. They were the women, the … Continue reading Love at the Foot of the Cross
What surprises me most about love is how uncomfortable and risky it can be. While it fills us with the heady feelings of safety and joy and delight, it simultaneously pushes us beyond our comfort zones, beyond what we thought feasible, beyond what we dared expect of ourselves, beyond our bruised and tender "edges". Love … Continue reading You, Ex Nihilo
Your life is bigger than you think. Stretching arms wide as its Maker, it strains to hold the abundance of God within you. You say you seek purpose. I say: seek the living imprints of God on your soul, and you’ll find what you need. Look for slivers of love and passion, justice and longing, … Continue reading How To Find Your Purpose: A Poem
Credit: picture taken from “Love Poems From God” translated and compiled by Daniel Ladinsky. I can’t shake this poem from Meister Eckhart. How many of our coloring books depict a clucking “tsk tsk” tongue, below beady eyes that can’t hide their disappointment? How many pages are scribbled with the red of hatred or vengeance or … Continue reading How Do You Draw God?
It's irritating. A calling will sound like the beep-beep beep-beep you faintly hear in your sleep-drowsied dreams. At first you will be dimly aware of its alarming persistence, until slowly, slowly, maybe then with a start you’ll curse the break of day. That is to say, it’s unpleasant, a calling, like a fly, buzzing around … Continue reading You Ask Me What A Calling Feels Like
For Mike The world has spun for a whole year without you. It’s relentless, the way life keeps going on and on and on, not stopping for a breath, a death, a good cry, a moment of reflection, a goodbye before it is too late. And on this day - one year later - I … Continue reading On the Anniversary of Unexpected Death (or, Grief Complicated)
A Reflection on Mark 2:1-12 Jesus Heals a Paralysed Man – vie de Jesus mafa Jesus, you looked with compassion on the men who disassembled the roof of your home to bring their paralyzed friend before you. They tore through the structure that kept you protected from the rain, sheltered from the hot sun. The … Continue reading On Disassembling Jesus’ House
Rev. Laura Johnson 