Met a seminary friend for coffee and writing—and then lunch—this morning. Seeing each other was a delight; sharing our summer lives felt breezy; swapping fall-term plans felt grounding… without that too-brittle future-grasping that foretells God’s raised eyebrow and flick of a finger. Kindred spirits in dunnamany ways, she’s a year ahead of me in school […]
As I fell back asleep/awoke this morning, I caught the edges of an NPR radio article about Zimbabwe. In my sleepiness, I connected most with wistfulness: in high school, when their democracy was new, I researched them and caught the hope for something stable, a place with a larger blessing for those who live there. […]
When in my twenties I fell in love with poetry, took out some big loans, packed up my small red Mazda hatchback with everything I owned and drove from Denver to New York to start graduate school, it never occurred to me that I was searching for a new way to read the Bible. I […]
Present time for A & K:
This afternoon I listened to the ‘Revisionist History’ podcast episode titled Burden of Proof. It’s Malcom Gladwell’s show, so it’s intriguing, packed, and persuasive in ways one should be careful about. (That’s my Gladwell-bias, at any rate. I love his stuff, but I have to be verrry careful that I keep thinking for myself and […]
If I had long, uninterrupted days, I wouldn’t know what to do. I would get nothing done. —J, mother of 2 littles, over enchiladas Christmas-style In one conversational gambit at the Glen Workshop, a colleague quipped, “You’re from Austin, TX? What’s the name of your band?” I laughed; the third person looked confused until I […]
You have no idea how much time I now spend within my own blog trying not to repeat myself. It would be easier if I ordered myself differently, or if I was less paranoid about having only five thoughts (thanks, Scott Cairns!), because then I could quickly retrieve what I was pretty sure I’d already […]
…to be cramming in Things We Planned To Do Before The Term Starts. Some of these things are my personal deadlines, the projects that I set out at the beginning of the summer. In which case I plan to keep my writing practice as equally urgent-important. Why should my lollygagging mean I reshuffle my priorities? […]
“This understanding of Judaism as a religion of action is encapsulated by the biblical verse in which the Jews standing at Mount Sinai signal their acceptance of the with the words ‘na’aseh v’nishma‘–’We will do and we will hear/understand.’” —from “Do First, Understand Later” by Rabbi Jill Jacobs Last winter, I scraped up against this […]
…and water. I don’t know which I’m lacking, now that I’ve run out of steam, but I know I’ve barely got brain to finish reading this Thomas Merton essay. So instead I’ll give you another picture, courtesy of my friend on the furthest right (she of the Selfie-Arm-! XD ):
