Jon Stewart’s Daily Show used to have a helpful segment called “Mark Your Calendars,” that provided information about commemorative events like National Hug-a-Tree Day or somesuch. Unfortunately, they don’t have that feature anymore, otherwise I would have known that Talk Like a Pirate Day was two weeks ago.
Another one I missed: this week is Screw […]

Tonight I was feeling the urge to blog but not knowing what to write. R said “write about the new bed, and our big baby.”
So here goes.
The New Bed
R and I have been married for almost 11 years. Every night of those 11 years, except when we have been traveling, we have slept side by […]

So how is the PhD discernment going, rm?
Pretty darn well, thanks for asking, Contrived Writing Device!
So recently I sent e-mails to two women I greatly enjoy and admire—one, a seminary professor who has been a friend and inspiration for a long time; the other, a pastor here in town who’s always brimming with great stories, […]

Katrina was tough, but Rita is tougher for me on a personal level.
Mainly because we’ve all been shown in the last few weeks how bad it can be.
But also because it’s hard to see the people of Houston, still my hometown in so many ways, who have come together to support and minister to Katrina […]

night
awake from a dream,
I squint at three dispassionate numbers,
stare them down like it’s high noon
(but it’s 3:45).
then I sigh and flutter closed,
sink down, burrow deep,
but it’s too late:
behind my eyes
the dream is a poem now, scarcely even born,
yet she wants me to
come get up,
come play,
come feed me
now!
she’s yanked the covers back,
knotted them at my knees
so […]

There’s a place out on the internets where people play a game with movie titles–change (or eliminate) one letter of a title to come up with a totally different film.
For example:
Mystic Liver — friendship, revenge and organ meats gone horribly wrong
or
American Lie: The George W. Bush story. (Don’t send me letters; I didn’t make it […]

C’s first “moment with the children” in worship
RM: (after giving the third graders their gift Bibles) The Bible has many different kinds of stories in it—there are histories, stories about great kings, stories about ordinary people, there are parables which were Jesus’ way of teaching us, there are poems…
C: I have poems.
RM: Yes, you do, […]

my mother had a charm bracelet.
my aunt had one.
I have one.
someday my daughter will have one too.
but for now, mine is hers,
each trinket traced and jingled by
her slender fingers—
claimed, counted, chronicled,
identified one by one:
here’s a sand dollar,
a flowered cross,
a Texas (deep in the heart),
a teacup with spoon,
a tiny Bible
(no the pages don’t open),
a cat with […]

…of the year!
The ubiquitous Fall Meme:
Favorite fall dessert: R’s pumpkin-pecan pie. Custardy pumpkin on bottom, crunchy-gooey pecan on top, crust that is never burned (thanks to his impeccable precision with the oven—he has been known to sit in front of it, watching). It Is To Die For.
Holiday: Thanksgiving. Family and food. I love the […]

Of course, the laziest thing to do is to actually buy playdoh, but the shelves in the toy section at Target were annoyingly mislabeled last time I was there, and I thought C would enjoy actually making some. Do I actually know how to make playdoh? Well no, but that’s what the internets are for.
During […]

Weekend
We had a really wonderful weekend all told. I got back from Big D Friday night. Saturday was mostly a day off, although I made a quick appearance at church for a Sunday School training event. Then a few errands.
Sunday was Christian Education kickoff. We had about 80 people in adult Sunday School, which for […]

Yesterday after my aunt’s memorial service I checked my cell phone messages. Before playing the new message, my phone plays any old messages that are about to be erased. I heard a message from a spiritual godmother of mine who had called the day my aunt entered hospice care. Her message radiated with love and […]

Come, labor on!
Who dares stand idle, on the harvest plain
While all around him waves the golden grain?
And to each servant does the Master say,
“Go work today.”
We all worked hard around here today, but everyone’s labors were quite different from one another. A snapshot…
R and I had a day of fun around the theme, “RM is […]

first
i used to lay in bed,
while he read dr. seuss
by golden lamplight
to a jostling bump.
i spread books out on the table,
charted progress,
made lists,
mapped out precise routes
to my destination,
her.
i moved—
slipping through shiny blue waters,
pounding feet on an incessant path,
shifting in and out of eagle pose.
i retreated
with my stowaway:
unpacked a few belongings
in a trailer on top of […]

In the car on the way home from church…
Me: C, did you have fun in the nursery today?
C: Yes.
[pause]
C: Christy (name has been changed) threw toys.
Me: Oh, that’s too bad. What happened next?
C: I got hurt. Christy is very very very bad.
Me: C, people aren’t bad; they sometimes do bad things, but you shouldn’t […]

part I
That week of meetings was a whole-family effort. R was amazing: hunching over bathroom sinks to run hot water over bottles of breastmilk in order to thaw them while I met with various and sundry groups; pacing at the back of the presbytery meeting with C on his shoulder; cramming into a tiny women’s […]

I am a member of the presbytery’s committee on ministry, and the other night I took part in a clearance interview for a candidate who has been called to an associate pastor position. Our job was to interview the church committee who called her (called the APNC), the pastor with whom she will work, and […]

Sept. 2, 2005 | HOUSTON — As they drove into Houston on Interstate 10 Thursday morning, evacuees from the New Orleans Superdome saw a “Welcome” sign. Local residents had hung bedsheets over the edge of overpasses and erected signs on trucks with messages like, “Welcome New Orleans, Our House Is Your House.””They were […]

This is a portion of Salon’s front page from this evening.
10 points to the person who can pick out the SATLFWP:
Top Stories
Flushing out the ugly truth
The horror in New Orleans has exposed the nation’s dirty secrets of race and poverty. Americans are ready to help. Will our leaders show the way?
By Joan Walsh
Remain silent! […]

My beautiful daughter,
the one who just up and figured out how to say the letter R,
who speaks in beautiful sentences with correct pronouns most of the time,
who delights us with lengthy conversations and multi-verse songs,
who can joke and play around with us
(which my father always said was a sign of true comfort with a language),
has […]