My Wandering Pen. Blog Thoughts.
"Not all those who wander are lost."– J.R.R. Tolkein
On Black Cats and Image Bearing
On Black Cats and Image Bearing The black kitty at the entrance to her home For the past several weeks a black, long-haired cat has been roaming a trail I regularly run. The trail meanders through a small wetland forest area behind my...
For Beauty’s Sake | Succulent Workshop Remarks
Fruits of our succulent workshop labors: a Lenten wilderness garden The following post is a transcript of my opening remarks for a succulent workshop recently hosted by the Women's Ministry at our church. I've had several people ask if I might make my comments...
Into the Wilderness for the Life of the World
Cimarron, New Mexico | BSA Philmont 2016 Not since the very early weeks of this coronavirus pandemic have I felt the reality of wilderness living more acutely. This is strange, because I feel it at a time when our family is taking ever-greater strides back into...
Some Beautiful Resources
This post is simple. I'd like to share with you a small list of beautiful resources. Some of these I've been gleaning from for years now, some for only a few months or even days. I commend each one in different ways and for different reasons. You may not connect with...
Thy Will Be Done | Playing with Words
In 2021, I am determined to spend more time playing with words.
Thy Kingdom Come | A letter to the Trees
(Note: What follows is an imaginative prayer practice that manifested itself in a different sort of way. I offer it as an encouragement, as you continue in your own imaginative prayer practice, which--I hope you'll see--can happen in a multitude of ways. Spend time...
Hallowed be Thy Name | A Practice
Right before he gave them the language of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus was helping his disciples understand what their prayer life ought to look like: “When you pray,” he said, “don’t pray like those hypocrites who love to be noticed by others trying to prove their own...
Way of Beauty | Way of Sabbath
Last week in class we discovered more of Beauty—its character and its story—through the third line of the Lord’s Prayer: Hallowed be Thy Name. Pope Benedict, in his 2009 address to artists had this to say about beauty: “Indeed, an essential function of genuine beauty,...
The Beauty of a Name | Our Father…
In our Sunday School class, we are telling Beauty’s story through a deep line-by-line dive into the Lord’s Prayer. If you look carefully at the prayer Jesus taught his followers to pray, you might see it arcing into narrative form. There is character and setting, a...
A Meditation on Psalm 27
This week, I've been sharing how the medieval monastic culture approached reading and 'memorializing' Scripture. I've been practicing what I've learned from the medievals (or at least my understanding of it) and applying it to my own Scripture reading time. Because I...
Going Medieval for Beauty’s Sake | Part Two
In Wednesday’s post, I shared with you the process medieval monastics used to read and remember the Scriptures. Discovering and studying the way of the medieval has been deeply satisfying, a gift and practice of delight in this particular season of living. You can go...
Going Medieval for Beauty’s Sake | Part One
I mentioned in my last post that 2021 is going to be about delight. A big part of this includes resurrecting this blog for the purpose and practice of delight. I’m serious about this. So serious, in fact, I’ve decided to dedicate the next thirteen weeks of the blog’s...
Resurrecting the Blog in 2021
Happy 2021! Finally. And yet, not much has changed on the outside. Something is stirring however. I sense it. I sense it as magnificently as I feel the down-to-my-bones chill in the air when I run. As potent and home-spun as the smell of cow pasture on my way to the...
Consider the Cicada
image from npr.org It is the season of the cicadas here in my Southwest Virginia mountain town. I’d never heard of cicadas until moving out East. It is one more thing I love about this part of the country. My first introduction to cicadas was in 2004—our first full...
On C.S. Lewis, receiving the spring, & this Holy Week
Never before have I been more comforted by the proof of spring’s coming outside my window. I know I’ve written about it adnoseum. I guess it’s because I am always surprised by its transforming on the landscape where I now live. On the prairie there were trees—one here...
Tree Roots, Birth-pangs, & Mothering Sunday: A COVID-19 Post
March 22, 2020 So…here we are. Outside my window, the fruit trees are in full, cotton pink bloom. The oak in my front yard is cast in hazy rust-colored buds. My grass is turning patchy green. It will need tending soon. The sun is finally pushing through days of cloud...
My favorite photo of 2019
Happy 2020! I'm sure you've heard it, or read it or thought it a hundred times already this year, but here it is again: Time really is flying by. I remember ushering in the year 2000--a young 20-something, dewy new mama--thinking, "Gosh, imagine how old I'll be twenty...
Coming Home to Children’s Literature
I am enrolled this fall in a children’s literature course at Hollins. I’ve been slowly picking my way through classes in Hollins MALS program: Masters of Arts and Liberal Studies. My focus is—shocking—all things literature. Immersing myself if children’s literature...
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