Creative Meaning Maker
Place Florida we landed from 2011-2017.
After two days of a week long hospital stay, I would look up with some apprehension as the shift changed. A few times during that week I was met by the eager smile of a nurse who was present and communicated her desire to help me. But, too often, whether morning or evening, I was… Continue reading A Healing Hand
As a young child of the 60’s, I loved the “Sword Drills” in my Baptist Church. We would grasp on to our Bibles with tense expectancy until the teacher would call out a verse to find. And off we would go, scrambling to find the golden page that won us points, a certain amount of notoriety, and, at… Continue reading Light unto My Path
And I was wondering if you had been to the mountain,Looked at the valley below;Did you see all the roads tangled down in the valley?Did you know which way to go?Well, the mountain streams run pure and clearand wish to mv soul could alwavs be hereBut there's a reason for livin' way down in the… Continue reading Mountains, Valleys and Deserts
The rocky northern Atlantic coast, while majestic, is not a swimmer’s paradise. The rocks on the “open side” are particularly high and jagged, and the water that crashes against them is deadly cold. On Monhegan, an island off the coast of Maine, no one who has fallen into the icy water on the open side of the island has ever… Continue reading Rollercoaster on a Wave: Part 2
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
“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
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
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
I just adopted Samwise, a Poodle/Maltese mix puppy in foster care with a Florida Dog Rescue organization. His mama had been rescued just before she gave birth to my very sweet puppy. I couldn't believe no one else had snapped him up. But this dog was left untouched for six weeks until I saw him… Continue reading Samwise
Our new home in Florida faces west, with a bog between our patio and the tops of these trees. I looked up from reading one evening and the sky was on fire. I grabbed my phone and snapped away. I was not prepared for the explosive beauty I captured so effortlessly in that moment. I… Continue reading Sunset Spirituality
Carla Waterman 