Events I didn’t expect
No end in sight save each passing day
Restless nights invite anxious tears
Looking for something –
A sign that all will be or end well?
The reason I’m still here, not elsewhere?
My mind races Read the rest of this entry »
What will I do with the rest of my life?
Weeks ago my pastor preached a sermon on this. The topic was both amusing and serious. Amusing because there isn’t that much left of ‘the rest of my life.’ Read the rest of this entry »
~~~~~Floating blossoms in an urn at Chanticleer Gardens, Sept 2016
After reading my dream, a friend asked this question: “What has already been keeping you afloat?”
I’m not drowning in the dream, though I fear some monster lurking beneath the surface might make a meal of me. Instead, it seems I’ve been floating on the Yangtze River for a while, perhaps more than 70 years. Read the rest of this entry »
Interpretive tapestry by Lee Porter — Hospitality, Thou Preparest a Table III
This memory still makes me smile. It also challenges me to think about my voice and how I use it now.
It was fall 1993. I’d just been promoted to full professor, and was the designated speaker for the seminary’s fall academic convocation. I worked on my address that summer in the context of angry national and local rhetoric about racial diversity. Read the rest of this entry »
I can’t get A Blank Canvas out of my mind. Sometimes, especially with distressing or puzzling dreams, I’ve written the next scene out as I imagine it might be. But this dream was different. Here’s what I’ve written instead–
No woman is an island….
Gentle swells of water
Calls from seabirds
The sounds of waves
Lap against my ears
Tree leaves rustle
The greatest adventure of my life
In the company of others
Keeping it simple
Floating in deep waters
Singing life with my words Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s another gem from Emily Dickinson, along with my personal response below.
Much Madness is divinest Sense –
To a discerning Eye –
Much Sense – the starkest Madness –
‘Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail –
Assent – and you are sane –
Demur – you’re straightway dangerous –
And handled with a Chain –c. 1862
Emily Dickinson Poems, Edited by Brenda Hillman
Shambhala Pocket Classics, Shambhala 1995
Dear Emily,
Please forgive me for barging in. You don’t know me and I don’t know you personally. Still, your poetry challenges me to think deeply. This one, in particular, brings me comfort Read the rest of this entry »
It’s late summer, 1951. We just moved from El Monte, California, to a house near Savannah, Georgia. The front yard faces the river you see in the photo above. I’m 7 ½ years old. I don’t know how to swim; a half-mile wide river flows in front of our house.
Not long after we move in, Read the rest of this entry »
~~~Islands of Palau in the South Pacific
In 1984, one year after I began teaching, I attended a gathering of faculty from 6 or 7 sister seminaries. We were together for one weekend. There weren’t many women professors in the group.
Because I was the newest female professor Read the rest of this entry »
Dear Friends,
This is NOT a goodbye post, despite the lovely blessing above. Do you know what a condyle fracture of the jaw is? Neither did I until last Thursday when I was on my way to get a haircut. It wasn’t my heart, dizziness or anything like that. Read the rest of this entry »
Waves of grief on a gorgeous spring day. Unannounced, unexpected, healing and welcome.
#5
Grief
Washes my face
With tears of sorrow
It started about 9am this morning. My heart Read the rest of this entry »
Telling the Truth 