Before you can even make out the words being spoken, the Kentucky accent rolls out of the speakers, to ask the question, “Who would you say is the most important person in your life?” “Definitely my mother,” answers the even deeper accent of Wanda Jean as she told a story about the love herContinue reading “Bad News, Good News”
Tag Archives: Christian
Being the Good Soil
When I bought my house, the first thing I wanted to do was get a garden growing, and the first seeds I planted at my house were wildflowers. In preparation, I spent countless hours pulling the crabgrass that makes up my lawn and to my dismay truly nothing seemed to stop this powerfully rooted enemyContinue reading “Being the Good Soil”
The Next Right Step
One of my most valuable lessons from my Sabbatical last summer wherein which I got to walk the Camino across northern Spain, is the critical importance of what I’ve come to call “despair breaks.” A despair break allows a bit of a pause before a breakdown when one is overwhelmed; it takes up space andContinue reading “The Next Right Step”
Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer
One of my very favorite phrases in this world is, “More is caught than taught.” I first learned it when I was a preschool teacher, and it consistently rang true. If I sat crisscross-applesauce on the carpet ready for Circle Time with my hands in my lap, soon the kids would follow. If IContinue reading “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer”
Do Not Leave Us Comfortless
As a kid, I was sort of always sick. I can tell the big stories, like how one year when decorating a live Christmas tree with my family, I stopped breathing and rushed to the hospital. And the boring stories like shortly having to go every Saturday morning to get three different allergy shots everyContinue reading “Do Not Leave Us Comfortless”
The Blessing of Changed Plans
My first Epiphany here at Christ Church, I took home the paper instructions and blue chalk and while I don’t remember if it was me or Father Steve who preached that night, I do remember how the chalk crumbled slightly as I with every bit of prayerful intention I could marked C + M +Continue reading “The Blessing of Changed Plans”
Changed by the Wilderness
The day started early, with simple and delicious buttered bread and a bowl of coffee, which, I learned that morning, was how the folks in the Basque area of France drink coffee, literally in a bowl. Over breakfast, I sat with other pilgrims, talking about the day, our hopes, and plans for the pilgrimage;Continue reading “Changed by the Wilderness”
A Way Forward
There is not much else I enjoy in this world as much as I love a good story. I love to be drawn in and the rise and fall of a narrative; I love when stories are predictable, and I love when they are surprising. But the thing I love most of all isContinue reading “A Way Forward”
Again.
In the midst of life we are in death;from whom can we seek help?From you alone, O Lord,who by our sins are justly angered. Holy God, Holy and Mighty,Holy and merciful Savior,deliver us not into the bitterness of eternal death. Burial of the Dead, Rite II; Book of Common Prayer, p. 492 For years onContinue reading “Again.”
The Listening Pilgrim
No one comes to any of life’s journeys in a vacuum; we come carrying all the burdens that life has laid upon us. We do not come to any pilgrimage devoid of the ways in which our journey has shaped who we are, who we have become, and who we might, by God’s grace, growContinue reading “The Listening Pilgrim”
Becca Kello 