Refiner’s Fire
-
moreMy name is…
On Friday, October 05 th, 2007From our current Morning Gathering reading.. Read slowly… (We did.) “On the last morning she was walking near the tents and huts of the desert dwellers, when in a lonely corner behind a wall she came upon a little golden-yellow flower, growing all alone. An old pipe was one tiny hole through which came an occasional drop of water. Where the drops f...
-
moreDawning Dark
On Wednesday, October 03 rd, 2007In my own way, I have known dark. For years, the freeze frame of my crushed younger sister seared my nights, this recurring nightmare of her body falling under the wheel, her lifeless little body laying motionless in a pool of blood in our laneway. That moment burned and smoldered at the fringe of my family’s days and branded our nights. My mother’s mental...
-
moreBaptized
On Thursday, September 13 th, 2007It is the way little country churches have a summer baptism A pond mirroring dappled light, leafy still hanging, hushed and waiting, a dock leading the way into the depths, pointing out to the other side. The Petersens with their six girls and two boys, and the Van Den Boogards with their seven boys and three girls, and Miriam Weber home on furlough from her t...
-
moreRepent. Rethink. Grow a Third Ear.
On Monday, September 10 th, 2007This week’s prayerful focus on Repentance… “You are such a poor listener.”The barbed words catch, sting. I own them. And the wrenching stab. They’re rightly mine. For it’s true: I had had ears only for the plink, plank, plunk of berries in the bottom of my bucket, the fill of blue, the rustle of the bushes loosening its sapphires. The noise...
-
moreWindy Day Cling
On Friday, August 31 st, 2007In the early morning light, I step out onto the old stones of the back step. The autumn air blows cool, fresh, from the northwest, tugging at the hem of my skirt, wanting me to come too. Not today. I have laundry to hang today, warm bread dough to tuck into loaf cradles, floors to scrub while bread babies rise under dishtowel blankets. Old wooden pins betwe...
-
moreListening to Poems
On Monday, August 20 th, 2007“The Bible tells us that we are God’s masterpieces (poiema in Greek);not only creatures, but his creations, his poems (Ephesians 2:10).We are living epistles (2 Corinthians 3:3).And so, our lives are meant to be listened to,because it is God who is speaking into and out of and through the symphony of the years,and the masterpiece of a lifetime.R...
-
moreMessy Love
On Friday, July 20 th, 2007Last in this week’s series on love… Love and death are hard. Up close to death’s face this week, I’ve felt, all the way through, the anquish of the wrestle with the last enemy. Love, too, is about dying. And so the struggle… Hanging the streamers, heart cut-outs and doilies from the ceiling for our annual Valentine’s party, Josh...
-
moreThe Broken Beloved
On Tuesday, July 17 th, 2007Part of this week’s series on love… It is morning and I grind flax. Kernels, brown and earthy, stream into whirling blades. I brace, anticipating the growling grind of the crushing. In a moment, hard outer shells are shattered against the metal. I pour the crushed seeds into a line of waiting bowls. In this fracturing, each flaxseed releases imm...
-
moreMid-day Song
On Monday, June 04 th, 2007“I will sing to the LORD,because he has dealt bountifully with me.”~Psalm 13:6 Crumbs crunching under Birkenstocks.Dishes on the counter.A teary child at the back door too late, pants soaked.A verse on the wall, reminding.Yes, Bountiful…everywhere.Wiggling toes dangling off toilet’s edgePages turning thoughtfully on the windowseatIrises...
-
moreLittle Stuff
On Wednesday, May 23 rd, 2007The kitchen filled with sobs and accusations. I comforted, then quietly sought the alleged perpetrator out in the orchard, admonishing myself as I walked to hold my tongue, to talk less and listen more. Under the blossoming apple, I spun: defenses, cross examinations, and dizzying oratorical circles. I took a deep breath, offered up a prayer for providential gu...
-
moreEyes to See
On Friday, March 23 rd, 2007I wash potatoes at the sink, scrubbing away earth. Out the window, the front porch flag wrap itself in the spring breeze, the cheer, “Count Your Blessings” faded, the edges frayed and tattered after a long winter. I am still trying to see, trying to count them, anyways. Perched on stools on the other side of the island, like a string of chirping sparrows, t...
-
moreSteam, Escape and Pressure Work
On Wednesday, February 21 st, 2007The pressure of it all gets to me. Come noon, and I am feeling it, like someone turned the heat to searing hot high: dear husband walks in the back door looking for a heaping plate of steaming hot food, toddler is rubbing her eyes with her pudgy fist, whimpering loudly for sleep, one child needs to know what 9 books would cost if 3 books cost $76, while two...
