Oklahoma and Other Storms

May 21, 2013 by

I admit, these moments are hard for me.  By “these moments” I mean the ones when natural disasters ruin the lives that people, like you and me, have spent years building, nurturing, growing, loving. Although we’ve advanced enough to explain them, even predict them, we’re still at a loss and dumbstruck when we are victimized by them. No matter their nature—hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes—we most frequently describe these moments of unsolicited and indiscriminate violence as “acts of God.” Maybe we do this in an attempt to make sense of them somehow … like we don’t understand how or why this would happen, but maybe he does. That ties me up in knots, and makes my eyes water even as I type this. Acts of God. If this is true, does it makes sense then to pray...

read more

The Faith of My Father

Jun 26, 2012 by

Yesterday was a hard day.  It just was.  In addition to worrying over Grandma and the health and cognition slowing ebbing from her 93-year-old body and mind, my heart quaked on behalf of my parents and the health challenges they are facing head on.  My father, diabetic and with a wound that is not healing, went in for a standard procedure to create blood flow to his legs that are as dry as a desert.  As he was prepped for the surgery, his doctor determined his veins were too far collapsed and that he needed another, more involved surgery instead to have a chance at creating a healthy circulation in his lower limbs.  I learned all of this over the phone and through the tearful confession from my mom, my sweet Billie Jean. I...

read more

Personal Earthquakes

Oct 26, 2011 by

Personal earthquakes. I’ve had a series of them lately. Some have been small tremors, like the smattering of persistent and color resistant gray hair, straight gray hair, peppered within the thick mass of my curly, bleached light brown ones. Others, dare I say more even, have been the leveling kind, like the doubts that have dogged my lifelong faith causing me to retreat from my faith-based job and communities; my children finding future away from our home; and – speaking of home – leaving ours of 24 years in Colorado to go and find a new one in the sometimes sunshine all of the time fickle skies of Seattle, Washington. Yeah. I’m talking major, 9.5 on the Richter Scale personal earthquakes that have left me sifting through the rubble of my life and trying...

read more