It’s tough to feel anything but dried up these days. Poetry helps. So does reading the Word. (One more than the other.)
Tag: covid 19
2020 Review: The Year of Shema
I approached my year-end reflection with a sense of failure and shame. But I wonder if I didn’t shema better than I thought.
A sacrifice of thanks
REAL TALK: I am not feeling terribly thankful today.I know, my privilege is showing. Bear with me.I’m an expat. I moved to Canada in 2006 and am wildly happy here, but I always make a holiday pilgrimage back to Missouri. It’s a tradition of nostalgia and belonging that recenters me in my family of origin. …
Love in the time of coronavirus: 11th anniversary
Our world sure does look a lot different since our last anniversary. And not just because of the dystopian TV series 2020 has been. In the past year, our marriage has weathered storms of unemployment, depression, hope deferred, and faith lost and found. Renewing our vows was supposed to mark an exciting new beginning for …
If Mary can be okay with it, so can I
This Sunday is anything but still around here. Not only are we celebrating Mothers Day pandemic-style, but it’s also my daughter’s 4th birthday. Dang moveable holidays. I confess part of me is annoyed. My flesh wants a day just for me! Momming during Covid-19 is harder than it’s ever been, and it’d be nice to …
You’re not from around here
I’m homesick, guys. With all the travel and immigration restrictions, my soul is longing for a place it can’t go, for the family I left behind, for a life we planned but may not have now. If you didn’t know, I’m an American expat (I think of myself as an alien–it’s cooler). I’ve lived in …
I need an adult
As the news escalates, a previously-rare thought is surfacing more: I don’t want to be the grownup. I don’t know what I’m doing! I don’t know if it’s time to wear masks to the store or for my husband to shower when he gets home. I don’t know how to explain that the mall, …
Go to your room and think about what you’ve done
Anyone else feel like they’ve been grounded? Like God told the whole world, “Go to your room and think about what you’ve done”? This past week, a theme has emerged. Nearly everyone I’ve talked to is halfway enjoying their enforced rest, halfway freaking the eff out because of all the STUFF it’s bringing up. Control …
I don’t want to go back to normal
Something I’m hearing a lot lately is “when things go back to normal.” And I find it kind of irritating. I get it. Our lives are seriously disrupted and unpredictable right now. We want things to settle down, even out, and be normal again. But can I make a confession? I kinda hope they don’t. …
A coronavirus selah
Ontario is officially holding in place for the next two weeks, and the news coming from places already doing so has made people twitchy here. Specters of instability, claustrophobia, boredom, and scarcity are sending ripples of fear through the collective unconscious. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Spending time in social isolation—for the …