Last week I met separately with two young women. Both are in their 20's, both are in serious dating relationships, both desire to "do this right," -and both see themselves and their beloved through the distorted lenses of difficult backgrounds. While the nature of their concerns were radically different, but their fear was so similar.… Continue reading Repainting the Portrait
Category: Archives
My blogs from the early 2000’s until we moved back to Minnesota in 2017.
Longing for Home
Earlier this week I was sitting on a bench in an outdoor shopping mall just before twilight. Around my feet crowded over a dozen sparrows, picking at the edges of the paving stones, tenaciously attempting to find some undiscovered crumbs in hidden cracks. I thought of the countless sparrows that regularly inhabit my backyard, emptying… Continue reading Longing for Home
Spiritual Badminton
They started it. I had called the retreat center in March with more than a little angst. For reasons beyond my control, I needed to find a place for THESE DATES this summer. I had just a few people--but no flexibility with the timing. And I was late in signing up. The retreat director initially… Continue reading Spiritual Badminton
Living Symbols
One of the pictures that frequently rests on my computer desktop is a photograph my friend Gigi took of St. Bartholomew's Chapel. This brave little "Pilgrim chapel"-white with bright red turrets-has stood since the 12th century between the Watzmann, the highest continuous vertical face mountain in the world, and the Konigsee---the deepest lake in Germany.… Continue reading Living Symbols
The God Who Sees
Hagar fled from Sarai when her mistress's treatment was too hard to bear. David and his servants fled Jerusalem after Absalom stole the people's hearts. Elijah fled from Jezebel with her threats ringing in his ears. And I have tried to flee from the enemies lodging in my mind. Sometimes the wilderness is the only… Continue reading The God Who Sees
What Mary Modeled
I do not find it surprising that Mary was a compassionate friend. Neither is it astounding that Mary would believe her son could help her friends. "Do whatever he tells you" sounds a lot like an outwardly directed version of "Let it be to me according to your word." But there is more. The problem… Continue reading What Mary Modeled
Wooed By A Baby
Our son made a tempestuous arrival into the world. An emergency c-section at the end of hard labor would have been climactic enough. But Ethan had contracted a life-threatening virus. My new-born was rapidly whisked to a neo-natal intensive care unit an hour away…and I finally caught up with him four days later. But this little… Continue reading Wooed By A Baby
Transformed by 40
They wandered forty years in the desert, those Israelites who failed the test of belief in the God who raised up Moses, delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh, made bitter water sweet, fed them with manna, gave them the Law and instructions for a Tabernacle so they would know precisely where they could find… Continue reading Transformed by 40
Kindred Temptations
I spent a delightful evening last weekend with a new friend. We found we had many things in common, but huge among them was a particular vocational path. Both of us had started adulthood driven and quite successful. And all these years later our lives were much simpler, and not particularly impressive by cultural standards.… Continue reading Kindred Temptations
Desert Dwelling
There are those who dwell in the desert, not as yearly discipline, or as the unlooked for invitation when life becomes a dust bowl, or even as a place of refuge from whatever or whoever is nipping at our heels. The actual experience in the desert is nearly always hidden from observation. Others perceive, instead,… Continue reading Desert Dwelling
Carla Waterman 