Yesterday I finished reading Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons For Our Own, by Eddie S. Glauber Jr. I read it for a book-discussion group and I’m so glad that I did. I have not read all of James Baldwin’s writings, and I know that I will never be able to do […]
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Is it the ongoing isolation of a pandemic that is the cause of my lack of concentration? Is it my age? The change of going from weekly writing of sermons to my own writing? I don’t feel a restless “cabin fever” so much as a desire to watch and listen. There’s a lot to see […]
In the three months of my retirement from local church ministry I’ve been doing what I love the most—reading and writing. One of the books I took off my shelf to reread is Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead, which led me to another of her books off my shelf, Home, and that led me to her […]
I’ve grown crooked, at a tilt.
I got up not too early on this Christmas Day, 2019 after a late night Christmas Eve service. I got my daughter the meds she needs and sat down at her bedside to keep watch, read, and pray. As in most mornings, song lyrics were running through my mind. This morning the lines were, “Why […]
Dad took us to see the Shrine Circus when it came to town. My father, playful and listening? I took it whenever it came, but I didn’t trust it much. I never knew how long it might last. I had never been to the circus before. As I said, Dad taking us somewhere fun and […]
The global United Methodist Church, some 12 million members worldwide, represented by delegates from each area of the United States and around the world, gathered in St. Louis this past weekend to vote on a way for the denomination to continue to be the church together across a widening divide of theology as it relates […]
Temma was laughing last night. I awoke to her laugh–a sharp intake of air accompanied by a little shriek–a giggle that doesn’t last long, but when it does happen is usually followed by another and maybe another. Who knows what brings on these laughs? When I heard Temma in the night, I recalled our Pentecost […]
When was the last time I spent an entire day at home with my daughter, Temma, just the two of us? It’s been awhile. And, thus, not much time writing either, beside sermons, e-devotions, and newsletter articles. I have returned to full-time pastor work after five years working part-time in the church. When I was […]
My husband Tim and I met in an intentional Christian community in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We lived together in large households with other folks, pooled all of our resources together, worshiped, prayed, and shared our lives together. Tim and I were married in the community and the community surrounded us and held us up when […]
Writing From the Margins 