We come to a time when we realize that the faith we have inherited is inadequate for what we are facing… At such moments we have three choices. We can hold to our religious beliefs and deny our experience, we can hold to our experience and walk away from our religious tradition, or we can […]

Today is October 24, Take Back Your Time Day.
TAKE BACK YOUR TIME is a major U.S./Canadian initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment.Did you know…
We’re putting in longer hours on the job now than we did in […]

Today’s tidbit from Brian McLaren, in a discussion on the kingdom of God: We need to be careful in our interpretation of the book of Revelation, specifically the visions of the apocalypse. This is a man whose power was in gentleness, who said “blessed are the peacemakers.” It’s as if peace didn’t work the first […]

First, a brief update
You might remember my frustration with the Crankypants Monthly e-newsletter. I had offered some feedback to the editor that the contributors were pretty darn old and pretty darn male, with few exceptions. They’re all lovely people, but still.
After having a conversation about writing book reviews occasionally, then being told a few months […]

This Is My Last Entry:
Why I shut down my blog.
By Sarah Hepola
Posted on Slate, Wednesday, April 19, 2006
One morning last month, I woke early, finished a book I’d been reading, and shut down my blog. I had kept the blog for nearly five years, using it as a repository for personal anecdotes, travelogues, and the […]

Excerpt:
He closed his speech on an apparently semi-serious note, urging the grads to learn how to say “yes.” He noted that saying yes will sometimes get them in trouble or make them look like a fool. But he added: “Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to […]

There’s an article in the Atlantic Montly about competitive eating, which is gaining popularity in this country as a spectator sport. (For the blissfully ignorant: whoever can eat the most X in Y minutes wins.) I find the whole idea pretty shameful and wish to repent for all the times that I have used food […]

I’ve been reading a lot of interesting stuff lately—a biography of Marie Curie (Obsessive Genius), an anthology of Jane Kenyon poems (Otherwise), and the latest Mothers Who Think collection, called Because I Said So. I really loved Rosellen Brown’s essay “No Blame,” in which she writes about being a writer and a mom. I’ve wished […]

I’d like to do an update on the Divine Miss M but there is almost too much to say. I’m taking notes and hope to post something soon. (Hey, this kid isn’t going to have a traditional baby book; the least I can do is an occasional post.)
In the meantime here are a few quick […]

See you on the flip side.
Once upon a time, in the beginning,
a labor of love was undertaken.
It started with a sign, to show that something was about to happen. Light came forth from the deep darkness, bright, clear and unmistakable.
And it was very good.
At the second time, the waters were broken. At first, they gushed, […]

“Some women having second or subsequent babies have periods of progressing contractions that come and go for days before they settle into a continuous pattern.”
–from Penny Simkin’s The Birth Partner
Penny, I’m sure you’re a very nice person, and your book is exhaustively detailed and helpful, but it’s 5 in the morning AGAIN, so if you […]

I feel better today–more grounded. We have the beginnings of giblet gravy reducing on the stove, pumpkin/pecan pie filling sitting in the fridge, and cornbread cooling on a rack at the table where I sit. Excuse me while I grab a bite (it’s for stuffing, it’ll never be missed).
Tonight I fulfilled the stereotype of the […]

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
—Mary Oliver
Here is what I love today:
• The overhang outside my study that allows me to open my window to […]

“Are you going potty? Good job Mommy.”
–C, giving her standard encouragement.
“Kissing bear!”
–C, picking an item for show-and-tell.
“These are my tighty-whities!”
–C, getting dressed.
“Well, I’m not quite sure.”
–An elderly gentleman at the nursing home where I led worship today, after being asked how he was doing.
“Could you help me put some of this on?”
–A woman at the […]

PastorG sent this on Friday…
I suck at Halloween. I always have. It was not a good idea to go to the church “Halloween Festival” dressed as Big Ben (yes, I did.) I was around 8, and I covered a box with butcher paper and drew a clock on it. I promise, […]

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! […]

From a letter to the editor of Salon, in response to an article about a nanny who was fired after her employer read the nanny’s blog (which she had told the employer about, and which contained musings on the family she worked for):
“I have the right to express myself!” I’m sure [the nanny] would claim. […]

…for National Poetry Month.
Ah well. It’s too wonderful not to share.
Metaphors
I’m a riddle in nine syllables.
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.
Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.
I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded […]

“Introduction to Poetry”
-Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to water-ski
across the […]

Closer to Home
This is a lovely place that is hard to leave
And there’s a loneliness we will always grieve.
So you give what you can, only take what you need,
And hope your heart will know what your eyes can’t see.
When I was a child, I thought like a child,
And I still feel like a child sometimes.
And […]