Nothing. When I woke up yesterday, I decided to do nothing. After a packed and scheduled week, I rationalized that I owed it to myself to do nothing. I almost succeeded. To do nothing, I soon found out, I had to do something. I could not just lie in bed with my eyes shut. Keeping …
Tag: Calvin College Faith & Writing Festival
Life at 82: L is for Love
Spending three session-packed days at the Calvin Festival of Faith & Writing has left my body buzzing as though I've eaten an entire chocolate cake and washed it down with a pot of caffeinated coffee. From this sentence, how would you describe what this conference was like for me? Dull? Boring? Waste of time? Or …
Life at 82: K is for Kinship
Being back in Grand Rapids, MI, this week elicits several feelings of kinship--an appreciation of similar origins. Like visiting my sister-in-law, Kay, yesterday. We are the oldest and youngest of my sibling clan, and the other eight have passed away. So a special visit for sure. Then stopping at my parents' cemetery yesterday brought tears. …
Life at 82: I is for I
I is for I as in me. I may have begun to learn that I must curtail my traveling a bit at 82. Yesterday I endured an 11-hour day flying day with one nearly three-hour layover at O'Hare. The day included three gate changes, including a concourse change, at O'Hare, a $24 lunch of a …
Memoir as Triologue
I’d never heard of memoir as triologue before I attended the Festival of Faith & Writing at Calvin College a few weeks ago. In a session led by three memoirists, Luci Shaw, noted poet, said she liked to think of memoir as a triologue between the writer, God, and the reader. Most of the session …
Metaphor as Mystery
Sometimes I get weird questions from people when it comes up that I underline a lot when I’m reading a book. “Why,” they ask, “would you want to mark it all up?” I want to scream, “And why wouldn’t I? Many writers write so beautifully that I simply have to underline their spot-on character descriptions, …
Christ as Cheerleader
Imagine sitting next to your sister (or anyone), turning to look her in the eye, and saying, for the first time, “You are loved by Christ.” Last week, I did just that while attending the session of Sharon Garlough Brown, pastor and spiritual director, at the Festival of Faith & Writing. Not only that, but …
You are loved by Christ…
was my powerful takeaway last week from attending the three-day Faith & Writing Festival at Calvin College. Imagine attending sixteen one-hour sessions, plus two chapels, with speakers whose intentions were to explore the intersection of faith and writing. Consider it an immersion camp on a rolling green campus where newbies quickly learn to shed dress …
What are you willing to suffer for? Part 3 – Final Answer
As a response to Part I and Part 2 of this series about suffering, I was comforted yesterday to see the "final answer" to our earthly suffering in the form of our Prayer of Confession written in our church bulletin: Holy God, so many times you have approached us, and we have turned away, You …
Continue reading What are you willing to suffer for? Part 3 – Final Answer
What are you willing to suffer for? Part 2
I asked this question last time based on reading Daniel Taylor’s words that he could tell what our passion was by how we answered this question. Passion is a concept that I’ve discussed often with one of my sisters since we’ve retired. In our working years, we both knew what our passion was. Teaching. We …
Write Along with Me 