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”
Tag Archives: Christianity
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”
Withered Bones in the Embrace of Mercy
One of my great joys as a priest is Lent, and not just because I like to remind folks that they are gonna die on Ash Wednesday – which, if you missed, it…. you’re gonna die one day. I love Lent because it’s an opportunity to pay microscopic attention to our lives. And eachContinue reading “Withered Bones in the Embrace of Mercy”
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”
A Trampled Sabbath
In Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life, one can find some of the best life advice there is, but within the framework of a non-fiction exploration of writing. Dillard is a master at blending poetry and prose as she dances between fiction and nonfiction; she crafts narratives that seem to be about nothing, but alwaysContinue reading “A Trampled Sabbath”
Sustaining Hope
There are some places in this world that invite one to ponder and to consider things that they had never given time to before, and over the last ten weeks of my Sabbatical, my life has been full of them. While I’ll go into sharing about my Camino journey and travels in a few weeks,Continue reading “Sustaining Hope”
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 