This morning I sat out in my garden–well, to be accurate, I sat bundled up in my garden, with a crocheted shawl flung around my head, a tartan plaid enveloping my shoulders and a old fleecy blanket tucked around my knees. But I was IN my garden, hearing the birds, feeling the wind, enjoying the beauty of a long-yearned… Continue reading Our Sun and Shield
Category: Archives
My blogs from the early 2000’s until we moved back to Minnesota in 2017.
Ponderings and Good Soil
Mary is not only reflective during her 9 months of waiting. She is a ponderer--holding her experience close to her heart and waiting to see what it all might mean. Her reflections burst into joy with Elizabeth, but remain hidden when, later Mary treasures up what the shepherds have said and ponders their meaning in… Continue reading Ponderings and Good Soil
Posture of Repentance
Our souls are created to look “up and out,” not “down and in.” One of the important implications of this reality is how we come to understand the mess inside, and then what to do with it. If “down and in” is a place where self talks to self, it is a closed system. I go on talking and… Continue reading Posture of Repentance
Praying with Blocks
“Lord, it is like this...” What would our prayers be like if we were free to be honest with God? No flowery words, no undigested churchy images. Just honest. I’ve been teaching a course on intercessory prayer through the lenses of gospel stories where friends bring friends to Jesus. The father with a child writhing on the ground, who… Continue reading Praying with Blocks
Remembering Ma
Tonight I find myself thumbing through my very worn copy of Grapes of Wrath. I have another "clean" copy downstairs on my respectable living room bookshelves. The one resting on my desk was already used when I bought it, and is now held together with tape. But it bears the markings from the first time… Continue reading Remembering Ma
Renouncing the Devil
Today is a “go to your cell, and your cell will tell you everything” day. But it took me years to discover what I was supposed to be doing in that cell, and I thought if I opened the door a crack, it might give others a greater insight into some of the common dynamics to cell dwelling. Yesterday… Continue reading Renouncing the Devil
Reorienting
If you were to ask my younger sister and illustrator if there was anything tentative in me with respect to the title of what is now Songs of Assent, she would begin her humorous romp through every title that was, in its season, the absolute right one. I had nine months of writing to name this creative baby...and it took… Continue reading Reorienting
Riding a Rollercoaster on a Wave: Part 1
Sometimes life needs more than one metaphor. My sister, Pam, and I constructed “riding a rollercoast on a wave” in one of those seasons where neither metaphor was sufficient in itself. Growing up playing on the sand of Lake Michigan and sitting on the rocks above Lake Superior, I love waves. I hate rollercoasters. I dislike the feeling… Continue reading Riding a Rollercoaster on a Wave: Part 1
Riding the Ripples
From one angle of vision, Mary’s rebounding “do whatever He tells you” illumines the kind of peace so anchored in her trust in Jesus that she could hold lightly to her plans and wait in harbor for her Son’s next move. But from another direction, her initial commentary at the wedding in Cana was itself a risk. Once the… Continue reading Riding the Ripples
Roadside Art
Lobster nets on Mohegan Island, Maine The "lobsta" fishermen on Mohegan Island, Maine, take life not as "a problem to be solved, but a medium for creation" (Dorothy Savers, The Mind of the Maker) to a whole new level. During their off-season (which, for reasons of state politics, was already in effect by the beginning… Continue reading Roadside Art
Carla Waterman 