Year of Yes
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moreThe Only Place to Really Live
On Wednesday, December 29 th, 2010I name years like I’ve named babies because each one births a different life that needs to be raised up and remembered. The oldest of those six babies we birthed in ten years, he was twelve when I named the first year, and that was the Year of Eucharisteo, that Greek word that the girl with the Dutch name needed to learn. I had to bang it out, late at night, a whole ream of l...
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moreThe Only Way to Become the Bride of Christ
On Monday, November 01 st, 2010We become the bride of God whenever we say yes to this moment. This is the fall of three weddings. The first, we sit in the woods under leaves and a sky that falls, all water, to witness a girl made princess says yes to her knight come riding. The bride and the groom, they enact a love story on the hillside, a parable of a Prince who loved a heart enslaved, of the coming Brideg...
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morewhen feeling nervous: what’s really behind the fears
On Thursday, September 30 th, 2010(because I’m traveling right now… and trying to remember just this…) Who said courage wears a red badge? It’s just khaki capris, a black tee, I pull out of the closet for a day dawning summer, me leaving the house for the heat, for appointment and errands. I have no red badge of courage, but I wear prayer, the murmur of the weak made strong in the breaking. ...
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morea plan for life
On Tuesday, September 21 st, 2010“For all that has been, thanks. For all that shall be…. yes.“ ~Dag Hammarskjold Photos: sunflowers from the garden giving gloryShare your thoughts? If you would like Holy Experience posts quietly tucked into your reader or emailed to your inbox for free…
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moreWhat is Really in the Midst of Every Messy House
On Friday, August 13 th, 2010Somebody stands in the kitchen near the end of the day and calls someone with a higher pitched whine an idiot. And I hear it and I hear the ensuing wail and I wince and I am at the end of my rope near the end of the day and I rail perfectly ugly about the beauty of grace and this is not how Christians talk and we do not say things like that around here and some kid notes that...
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moreweekends are for the mess
On Saturday, April 10 th, 2010And I’m in our bedroom stacking The Farmer’s freshly laundered denims when I hear the back door slam shut. Malakai’s in. And I hear his still-outside voice holler loud at Shalom over the brrr whirl of the pop-pop-pop-popcorn maker, “Popcorn? Did Mom really say you could make popcorn, Shalom?” An...
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moreWhen You Hope….
On Thursday, January 14 th, 2010On the last night of the year, the eve of the clean and unsullied hopes, eve of a whole brand spanking new decade all stretched out just fresh, we do the wild and unthinkable, something we’ve done only once before and only then after we had sung a happy birthday and blew out all the candles. My father invites us to bowl. To take balls like heads and make them roll. Pin...
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moreThe Real Secret to Happy Homemaking
On Friday, January 08 th, 2010TThe epiphany comes after Epiphany, in my first week of the year of yes. A blue jay sits in the spruce boughs. The washing machine hums as it scales Mount Washmore. A half dozen boisterous kids play dominoes and cut paper and sew material and clack the long needles. I’m standing in the kitchen with the dishes stacked and the floors fallen and scattered and all the world ...
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moreWhen You Can’t Figure Out What the Answer Should Be
On Wednesday, December 30 th, 2009Snow falls outside the window, whispers. I lie on her bed, listening to white. In the grey, night changes into a sweater of day and branches of the bare lilac slips on lace. She cups into me. She’s listening too. Her and I, we often lie together in the early and plan. “Mama?” “Mmmmm…” I murmur into her nest of curls. “...
