The ropes I used had colored ends: green, red, yellow, black, blue, purple. Last weekend’s women’s retreat was an exploration into the matters of the heart that are riding just beneath our planners and online calendars. Each color represented a different kind of commitment that pulls at our hearts. In a very diverse group, what… Continue reading Choose Wisely
Category: Pondering
Common Ground
Drenched
I was talking to a younger friend yesterday who, in spite of careful stewarding of his financial resources, encountered tax bills this spring that completely wiped a fairly healthy savings account. We spoke of the raw fear that comes when, in spite of our best efforts, we find ourselves in moments of financial insecurity, and… Continue reading Drenched
Drop Everything Now
My senior in high school left the house this morning with a slight swagger on the way to the golf team meeting. The top of the totem pole looked great at 9:00. At 9:40 the view was slightly different. Cell phone rings: "Mom! I need a sports physical before try-outs begin at 12:15." Hmmm. "OK.… Continue reading Drop Everything Now
Before Their Time
I am retreating up in the mountains with my husband of thirty years at the very moment that my friends in Wheaton are laying their beloved son, student and soldier to rest. He was a classmate of my son's. So I walked over to our little chapel high in the treetops and prayed for Sam's… Continue reading Before Their Time
Engaged to Gratitude
Mary is waiting. When Gabriel arrives, she is waiting to marry Joseph. She is engaged, or rather, in more hefty biblical language and meaning, she is betrothed. She is technically married to Joseph. Now she is waiting out the prescribed year of preparation before she goes to live in Joseph's house as Joseph's wife. But… Continue reading Engaged to Gratitude
A Real Battle
A few years ago I found myself having sustained one of those sickening, confusing, fearful spiritual attacks for which one is completely unprepared. I could only describe it as a poisonous arrow…and then I thought of Paul’s “flaming darts of the evil one” at the end of Ephesians. Perhaps Paul was not just painting a nice word… Continue reading A Real Battle
Ubi Caritas
I had the most extraordinary experience on Maundy Thursday. I was playing the piano for the small church where I presently worship. It is part of the complicated map of American Anglicanism that regularly rearranges itself in this era. I have a deep love for the beauty and truth of this prayer book tradition, even as I ache… Continue reading Ubi Caritas
Narnia Revisited
If its been awhile since you have been immersed in Narnia, I heartily recommend it as an anecdote for that sluggishness of soul that so easily creeps up on us. Narnia has been in my teaching repertoire for several years now. In 2003 I began to teach a class called "The Seven Deadly Sins in… Continue reading Narnia Revisited
Left-Handed Prayer
When I was in Junior High I taught myself to crochet. I would have asked someone to teach me but I had one problem—I was left-handed and everyone I knew who possessed a crochet hook was right-handed. So I taught myself. I learned to reverse the pictures on the page, and recognize the patterns reversed on my hook. There… Continue reading Left-Handed Prayer
Carla Waterman 