writing small. making things with yarn. trying to have faith.
I can go a little overboard when I get started talking about things I’m into—and I am into yarn. So when my pastor asked me to talk about yarn and weaving in church this morning, I knew I would need to be careful. Because I could talk about weaving as a theological metaphor all day long.… Continue reading The Works of Our Hands (A Reflection for Labor Day)
Sermon based on the RCL readings for July 21, 2024, especially Mark 6:30-56, and inspired by the chapter on "Encircling" in the book The Soul's Slow Ripening by Christine Valters Painter. "Round" rock at a labyrinth, St. Louis, MO There used to be a quiz show on NPR called “Whad’ya Know?”—it started forever ago, in… Continue reading The Good Shepherd at Work
Selections from "Jazz," by Henri Matisse. At the Baltimore Museum of Art. This week I learned a new word (don't you love when that happens?), in a recorded session of a workshop called Create + Engage, hosted by Anna Brones, an artist whose newsletter is one of my favorite inbox arrivals. One of the guests… Continue reading Things Come Together
Note to self. When I started the MFA at Lindenwood U., I started blogging again so I could reflect on my MFA experience. I had good intentions (and you know what they say about those...!) of starting from the very beginning. Oops. I'm about to finish my fourth class in the program, coming up on… Continue reading Year (of MFA) in Review
Spotted on a bulletin board at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, VA Beach I don't know if it's because I have a milestone birthday coming up this year, or if I've just been in a mood, but I've had a lot of memento mori moments in the past few weeks. It hasn't (usually) felt… Continue reading Death and Discipleship
Smithsonian Institute, D.C. After years--decades, even--of window-shopping for MFA programs, fantasizing about weeks away on residencies, deciding I was nowhere near ready to apply, tussling with myself about whether this is a wish or a pipe dream or a calling or just a relic of who I was once... .... I found and applied for… Continue reading Impulse? or Inspiration?
The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. I am not an impulsive person. About two years ago I realized if I ever wanted to seriously consider applying for an MFA program, I had work to do. Not only was I not ready to do a program, I wasn't even ready to apply for a program. I didn't have… Continue reading Ready, or not
The word wall at Planet Word, D.C. From the time I discovered there was such a thing as a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing, I've wanted to do one. That was a long time ago, but for many years there was not a time when it "made sense" for me. Early on… Continue reading Who knows where, or when
Planting something new. 🙂 For a long time I've debated whether to pick up blogging from where I left off (for about the dozenth time), or to trash all my old posts (about 12 years' worth) and start fresh, or delete the whole darn thing and forget about it (in some ways the most appealing… Continue reading A New Season
Just about a week ago, my family gathered in Kansas City, Missouri, to celebrate Christmas—but more importantly, to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Christmas comes but once a year, as the saying goes, but a golden anniversary is once in a lifetime and only then if you’re lucky. So I hope Baby Jesus will forgive our skewed priorities just this… Continue reading Living in Pattern (Isaiah 42:1-9)
a moving yarn: 