A turbulent storm shred a tree branch from the trunk of a large tree in my neighborhood one night. Looking up, a huge expanse of raw wood seemed to cry out, “I’m exposed. I’m broken. Can you see what’s happened here?” The rest of the tree stood unmoved, still and strong. The roots were solid….
Tag: Dignity
My Notes for Talking to My Kids
Watching the Olympics with my family this past weekend, you can’t escape it. Athlete after athlete after athlete has overcome some amazing challenge or hurdle or disability or life-change to train and prepare for being an Olympian. The have a goal, they make a plan, they pursue it with diligence, and then they revel in…
Fireworks and Freedom
I watched the fireworks last night. One child likened them to fairies. A different child called them missiles. As I watched the fire fall from the sky, I realized that in some ways they were both right. For so many of us, fireworks are almost a magical spectacle of dazzling light, a symbol of freedom,…
Jesus and His Mama: I laugh, I melt, I kneel
I don’t think too much about what kind of a son Jesus was to Mary. We hear a lot about how Jesus is the Father’s Son, how he came to be about his Father’s business, how he was sure of his identity as God-made-flesh. But I think it’s important to also remember that he was…
Harper Lee
The author is gone, but what she contributed to the landscape of American culture will not soon be forgotten. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic, my favorite. Even the name of my blog is inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird. My family quotes the book and the movie on a regular basis….
The Eternal “Oughtness”
“I refuse to accept the idea that the ‘issues’ of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal ‘oughtness’ that forever confronts him.” –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I think there’s very little that Dr. King spoke that is not quote-worthy. His words were powerful forces that spurred people to…
What Hurricane Katrina Survivors Taught Me
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States ten years ago this week. I wasn’t in the storm, but I remember the people. After Hurricane Katrina, my husband and I volunteered at an old military base where authorities bussed many displaced people from New Orleans. These displaced citizens, my neighbors, were in a…
My Wish for America
Happy Birthday, United States of America! So, America is great. The women’s soccer team rocks. There are lots of states with different flavors of culture mixed all up in them. We have freedoms hard to find in some other places in the world. People don’t like to mess with the USA too much, and I…
A Picture of What 