Confession: I’ve been thinking a lot about hair. I don’t know why. It could be for joy at the new-blown fuzz covering my sister’s head. It might be remembering a little 5-year-old I met, who grew hers out long to donate to Wigs for Kids. It could be that I just tried out a new […]
A question about hair Read More »
Part A Confession: Almost I would give up writing on any issue I care about, for the way in which I am tested in that area immediately afterwards. I wrote about seeing work as play, and immediately began taking my own so seriously I could hardly stop to breathe. I wrote about grace, and started
On gardening and imperfection Read More »
Confession: After several years of profound deliberation, I have come to believe that the best approach to life is, after all, play. When I was a mother of two, one a high energy two-year-old with incessant questions, the other a baby requiring nighttime feedings, endless diaper changes, and infinite patience, I came across a song
All the work is through Read More »
Confession: This morning as I knead the bread dough and hang the too-many pairs of jeans on the line in the sunshine and remember the friend going into surgery for breast cancer, this song is giving me chills. Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin… He is so good. When I sing these
Invitation to a songfest Read More »
Side notes: First of all, thanks to those of you who shared glimpses from personal experience—I am honored by your honesty. You round out the discussion in ways I cannot. I want you to know that in all I say, I am not trying to pressure anyone into a box. My goal is not to
A room in the house Read More »
Confession: Sometimes I think that being Mennonite is like being part of a big butte out west. That’s what my husband says. When you look at a butte, you think—Whoa, where’d that growth come from? What subterranean forces heaved it out of the earth? But it didn’t grow at all. At one point the whole
Mennonites and metaphors Read More »
I see some of us are still frozen with horror at the idea that anyone would actually love being a Mennonite. Or not love being a Mennonite. I said “sometimes,” alright then? I didn’t mean to sound arrogant, as though Mennonites have a corner on church life. I recently heard Anabaptists described as the “vanguard
Mennonites and gender Read More »
Confession: Sometimes I love being Mennonite. This is not a popular thing to love nowadays, and I confess I don’t love it always. Sometimes I do. Our congregation has been working for some time on hammering out what we call our “covenant”—our statements of faith and practice. This spring we had four issues at hand:
Mennonites and music Read More »
Confession: It’s a good thing I joked about coming off antidepressant meds while I still could—while it was fuzzy and funny. I wasn’t laughing two weeks later. I thought I was losing my mind. But I’d rather not think about that so much now—only say hence, six blog posts in three weeks. I can’t write when
Walking through the woods, I found a little door. I’m sure I saw a welcome mat laid down, curled from waiting. I’d like to stop in for tea sipped from an acorn cup, and some sweet nut cakes. I’d like to forget that I’m adult, that there are dirty dishes and bad news waiting in
Alice in wonderland, or not Read More »