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Thirteen -- A Story of Community

Thirteen — A Story of Community

A little more than two years ago, I packed my secondhand cheetah print suitcase, boarded a plane and headed for a remote Texas canyon cut by the Frio River. I was excited to be attending my first writers’ conference, and nervous. I wasn’t an author, wasn’t writing a book, had no plans towrite a book, and wasn’t published, but I do love words, write a blog and a little poetry, and love…

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Breathe

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Richest Love

Beautiful Sunday blessings to you, Friends!

What grace that we are loved beyond imagining

by the One who IS love, whose love never changes, never fails,

never ends,

whose love is wholly undeserved, and beyond all limits of time and space.

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Called by Name

“The stories that penetrate life’s routines are the stories that connect humans to each other.” Matt Knisely

When I first learned of Matt Knisely’s new book Framing Faith, I was intrigued. Matt’s an award-winning photojournalist of twenty Emmys andthe Edward R. Murrow Awards, whose work I admire and whose words inspire, challenging me to reach higher, to work on lighting and framing, to…

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A Rare and Precious Gift

A Rare and Precious Gift

“Nothing is more personal or intimate than listening.” Matt Knisely, Framing Faith

A couple of years ago, my spunky, speaks-her-mind, mother-in-law sat at one end of our kitchen island talking football when our middle daughter and her friend walked in. Anna hugged her grandmother and introduced her friend, Anthony, a high school football wide receiver.

They all chatted for a few minutes then…

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Every Story Matters

“I am a hoarder of moments.”

Matt Knisely’s words caught me in the very first paragraph of his new book, Framing Faith, for I’ve been living in moments, those overlooked glimpses of eternity tucked into every breath, every heartbeat of creation, for thirteen years.

It’s why I pick up my camera. To seek beauty beyond first glance.

Why I pause, eyes closed, to feel the dew beneath my feet,…

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Finding Home

I’ve never had to go far to experience God. Just a few steps outside my own back door. Because I feel Him in spring lilacs drenched in rain, in verdant green and winter white, in thunder and in rain.

I feel Him as I break up winter-hardened earth, pull weeds, and harvest peas. As I breathe deep the symphony of blackbird and blue jay, cardinal and finch, rustling leaves and honeybee.

This…

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Choosing to See

Today I am choosing to see, to look beyond the ordinary for the extraordinary — the breath of God in every moment, His love infusing every breath, His still, small voice echoing in every heartbeat.

Will you join me?

Let’s encourage one another to see, to really see, sharing in the comments where we each see the extraordinary just beyond the shadows of the ordinary.

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Don't Lift the Lid

Don’t Lift the Lid

Thursday is garbage day. Early in the morning we wheel clean receptacles and recycle bins just outside the garage door. Neat and tidy. Nothing unsightly.

Unless you lift the lid.

So much like me.

Neat and tidy. Matching clothes. Matching socks. Dusted. Vacuumed. Laundry done. Counters clean.

But don’t lift the lid.

Or you’ll see my ragged need for validation. My rotting desire to be

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Poem for Today

I stand at the edge of day gathering vulnerabilities in the waning light,

smoothing folds, tucking edges in tight, like a crisp cotton sheet

over a well-worn mattress, frayed at the edges, lumpy and stained.

But lie down, stretch out, and the years rise like steam tugging against the seams

of this origami life.

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In Search of Him

In Search of Him

Words are where I begin to understand, gain perspective, to process this life we’re living, where I seek the Deep and discover God in the messy midst.

Words are where I feel my heart beat, where I seek hope unfolding like dew-wet wings waiting to fly.

Because we have five precious kids. Four with significant, long-term illnesses.

Four.

Amazing kids navigating the teenage years with diseases…

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The Currency of Zero

The Currency of Zero

“Did anything surprise you?” my husband asked.

“Not really,” I answered a little too quickly. “I know myself pretty well. I could have told you where I’d end up without answering all those questions.”

Pause. My husband wisely waits me out sometimes.

“Well, I guess one thing surprised me. For the past 21 years, I’ve been immersed in the area of my absolute weakness. Do you know I scored a zero…

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From A Spring-Fed Well

From A Spring-Fed Well

Agape, to love without borders,

unconditionally, expecting nothing in return.

To love without prompt from a spring-fed well,

regardless, in spite of, right through the messy midst of,

saying with the heart, “There is nothing you can do

to make me love you more, and nothing you can do

to make me love you less.” Agape,

looking past imperfections to hope,

who we were created to be, who we can become

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A Goal and a Shirt

A Goal and a Shirt

Click here for your free printable of the photo above.

Tonight I’m going to share something a little different — a t-shirt. Not just any t-shirt, but a battle cry, chosen by my Dad as his goal, his motto, his encouragement through twelve treatment cycles — fourteen days on, fourteen days off for a total of 168 days of treatment — for systemic melanoma in 2014.

Encouraged to write a goal, a…

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Savor the Hard Stuff

Savor the Hard Stuff

I woke this morning to a message from a friend, “Savor the hard stuff.”

Not words she’d wanted to send. But words God had laid on her heart, clearly, unmistakably. Three times in thirty minutes. And on faith, she sent them to me.

“I LOVE you!” I immediately typed back, because she’d sent exactly the words I’d needed to hear.

Twice in two weeks, the phone had rung in the middle of the night,…

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A Gift for You

A Gift for You

A few weeks ago, Amy Breitmannand Tammy Hendricksmeyer of Outside the City Gate approached me and asked if I’d be interested providing photography for their first e-book, Pieces of Faith, A Mosaic of Sojourners.

“Yes! Of course! Absolutely!” was my immediate reply from the rolling hills of Elkton, Oregon, where I was attending a weeklong photography workshop.

And what an honor it’s been! Tammy…

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Whispers of Eternity

To tender love is to spill Christ,

however distorted, shadowed, refracted

in these shards of clay, whispers of eternity

oozing through fissure, chink and gap,

staining Adam’s dust in infinite array.