I'm just trying to walk myself home.
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Longer Walks For Seeking The Sacred Over the last few weeks, I have been going for longer and longer walks. Four times a week, I’m crossing the five mile mark, which is long for me friends. It’s partly because I am training for a long walk (Yes, I have bravely put something on the calendar …
Come dream with me about what is possible. Near the beginning of the summer, I wrote this post about imagining something new. I wrote it publicly, but actually I think that it was for me. Those words have been the oars that have moved me slowly and quietly over the waves of the …
This strange summer has unfolded much differently than I imagined it six months ago, both in the world and in my life. The numbers of those who are sick continue to grow. As do the number of protestors. Some days all I can see is that the sick are forgotten and the protestors are gassed. …
A Meditation from Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ Hello sweet friends. I’m locked down in quarantine just like most everyone else. But last week I was in Arkansas and I spent a couple of days hiking with my dad, and while I was in one of my favorite places, I sat down and recorded this …
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about the self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. -Wikipedia I’ve been reading and thinking lately about the idea of pilgrimage. I love to go for a walk, but …
Snapshots of Walking in Winter in Illinois + Musings From My Wanderings Several years ago I wrote the following Richard Rohr quote on an index card and hung it up in the kitchen of the apartment we were renting. In order to live your soul into the world, you must continually loosen your beliefs about …
Be Still and Know: A Restorative Yoga Class Sequence + Spiritual Practice Back in June, as part of my Yoga Teacher Training, I taught a yoga class that is hosted by area churches called Be Still and Know. Be Still and Know is a restorative yoga class that is both gentle movement and spiritual practice. …
Me: “Who wants a mince pie?” Ben: “I do!” Simon: “No, thank you.” Mary Polly: “Nope.” Me: “You might want to try them this year. This could be our last Christmas to have mince pies.” The replies come back all at once: “Don’t say that!” “No!” “Shhh!” It is the question we are asked most often …
Imagine if one day I was sitting in my house back in Arkansas and I saw on television that thousands and thousands of refugees were fleeing their country from a war somewhere in South America? And they were flooding into Mexico, hoping to get to the USA. But the border between Mexico and Texas was closed? …
Happy Thanksgiving Friends! (That’s me waving to you from across the pond!) Since I am not cooking a turkey or even baking making Grandmother’s rolls today, I thought I would take a few minutes to share a collection of the thoughts of my heart from the past week or so. Because I am just a …
Hi friends, A couple of weeks ago we sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing in church, a song which I have long loved. It has always been my sister’s favorite hymn, and lately it is Mary Polly’s as well. The phrase “prone to wander” always grabs me, but this time around I held to …
On New Year’s Eve, Taido and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. This amazes me on so many levels. 20 years? Didn’t we both just turn 20? But then we watched the video recording of our wedding with my entire family and indeed, there we were, 20 years younger. All kinds of bad hair and …
Beauty from Ashes Twelve years ago today, we received one of those phone calls you never want to get. A family friend called from Switzerland to let Taido know that his father had tragically drowned trying to recover his daughter, Maya, who had also drowned. Maya, Taido’s half-sister, was five years old at the time, …
My home church in Arkansas, the one I grew up in and that my Daddy preaches at, is celebrating being a church for 30 years this June. In honor of that anniversary, I wrote this story: Sunday Showers circa 1989. Mother had just settled into her Sunday afternoon state of being half asleep on …
One of the wonderful surprises about art is how the forms reach out and speak to those who have no official knowledge or learning about the art form itself. You don’t have to be a painter to love a painting. And while it is almost certain that if I had some experience as a painter, …
Giving Things Up: A Story about Lent The thing about giving up something for Lent is that it is sometimes hard, especially for children, to not make the thing you’ve given up the focus of one’s attention. I think the point of giving something up during this season is to make more space for God. …
What kind of images come to mind when you hear the word needy? Is there a certain name that pops up on your phone that makes you hesitant to answer? Is it the person in your life who takes more from you than they give? More money, more time, more energy. The word draining is …
I’m still trying to tell stories on Tuesdays, so in January I told a few stories about Walking Towards The Unexpected. For the month of February I am writing about Walking in the Dark. Because I was trying to choose a happier theme. (sarcasm) Actually, if I didn’t feel light in my heart today, I …
Who does not love a stack of brand new school supplies? Or the smell of freshly sharpened pencils? I love to hold a new notebook in my hands, one with no creases in the cover, and to open it up to the first blank page. It is as full of possibility as the sun coming …
Facing Fear The chalkboard art in my room is currently inspired by a quote I heard from an interview with Brene Brown, (h/t Donna Hall for introducing me to Brene Brown, showing me the Podcast app on my phone and changing my life forever in the midst of a late night painting frenzy!) Here’s the …