Differing Viewpoints, Shared Hearts (Part 1)

John, at Ancient Hebrew Poetry, has had several powerful and deeply moving posts recently: On gender issues (this link is to part one of four); market forces, Sabbath and gender; on war. There are more, but these are the ones that have kept my mind and heart stirred up and pondering much over the past [...]

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Happiness and Sadness in Comfortable Tension

I feel happiest when I have faced and felt how deeply sad I am.
Probing the depths of sadness and feeling it deeply and widely frees me up to laugh again. I don’t know if that makes sense. I can feel myself sliding and falling into consuming sadness and lethargy, and that can be frightening. But, [...]

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evil ain’t got no roof

(A slave woman named Georgia, in answer to the pregnant, 15-year-old slave Aminata’s statement that the master would not take her baby. From the book Someone Knows My Name, by Lawrence Hill)
Why am I drawn to the sufferings of others? Why the desperate reading of books like this one and Snow Flower and the Secret [...]

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New Perspective on the Mall

I never have figured out what the whole New Perspective on Paul deal is all about, but the phrase sure sounds catchy. And I really haven’t been looking for ANY sort of perspective on the mall, but today I got one, from my six-year-old son.
In general, I try to avoid the mall like the plague. [...]

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A Faithful God, Changing my Heart

I have arrogance in my heart,
and God is faithful in addressing that,
in such a tender and gentle way.
As I have wandered somewhat aimlessly over the past 9 or so months looking for a church, my grief (missing the church I had been in previously) and frustration and uncertainty began to turn into something worse–arrogance. Or [...]

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Passionate Reading

So, did you think I’m reading a steamy r*mance n*vel now? [that last phrase before I put the *s got me an unwanted incoming link--is this why I see people put strange characters in the middle of certain words?! Does anybody know how to block a link like that?] Actually, I can’t stand that genre. I’m just not [...]

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Why I Love Florida

Because it’s sunny. And warm. And because we DO have beautiful seasons–you just have to think outside the box to notice them. There’s the rainy season (also known as the hot, can barely breathe because of the humidity season), hurricane season, baby lizard season, squirrels running around in your attic season (okay, that one lasts [...]

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Bad Hair Day? ( and The Longest Sentence Ever)

Anne Roiphe has a way with words. When I read a sentence or paragraph that is particularly picturesque, I feel like I get double the pleasure out of it. First, for the words themselves, and second, in thinking about and admiring the kind of brain it takes to be able to craft words in such [...]

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What’s Up with my House?

A couple of people have recently asked what has happened with my housing situation. The short answer is,
I still don’t know.

The slightly longer answer is,
I have this day and this month in this house, which I like so much–the same house I was in when I  requested prayer that God would make a [...]

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Deeply Moved

Well, if you’ve been around my blog or read many of my comments, you might be tired of hearing that phrase. I’m starting to think it should be my life’s motto. But, now it’s giving me a problem.
You see, I care about communication. I really don’t care about being a great writer. But I do [...]

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