Not even my parents can remember a blizzard like last week’s— when we shoveled half a foot of snow off the pond just so we could skate, while the wind reddened our faces and froze our hair. More snow covered our work in minutes. The sky cleared on Wednesday, so now it’s sun on ice— … Continue reading Winters Past & Present
For seven years, I stood on my neighbors’ porches every other Friday to hand them some pages I’d written, rolled into a rubber band and labelled: Argyle News. The neighborhood newspaper was mostly a briefing of the birthdays, holidays, and graduations in my family, sometimes headlined by a tree that had fallen across Edgewood Road … Continue reading Front Porch Ambitions
When Jesus says, “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning” in Luke 12:35, I get two images from Tolkien’s The Return of the King. The first is of Minas Tirith— a stone fortress towering against the enemy realm of Mordor. I see Pippin the hobbit bumping between soldiers who are rushing to find … Continue reading Part Three: Belonging in a Kingdom
For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Cor. 6:16). As my church crawled out of quarantine, blinking in the May daylight, I had a run-in with … Continue reading Part Two: Belonging to a Person & People
Tucked inside Andrew Peterson’s Adorning the Dark is the story of how his home came to be. It’s my favorite chapter in one of my favorite books, and it starts with this confession: “I was born homesick. Maybe we all were.”[i] I remember listening as Andrew read aloud this chapter (Longing to Belong) in a … Continue reading Part One: Belonging to a Place
Somewhere along this trail I've been hiking called My Writing Journey, I started seeing light filtering through the trees. Instead of staring at the trail (and writing about it), I started looking up (and writing about that). I started seeing shimmers of eternity in the humdrum of the journey. My writing has changed since those … Continue reading Announcing “Home” (A Fall Blog Series)
This article was written for and published on StoryWarren.com. Samwise had climbed too many stairs with Shagrat drooling on his heels. He’d blasted through Cirith Ungol’s gates with Galadriel’s light. He’d searched every black corner for Frodo, and now, his master was a tower trapdoor out of reach. So Sam sang nursery rhymes into Mordor. … Continue reading The Song that was Sharper than Sting
June 21 I passed your home early at dawn, And saw the front room light was on. By that light in a chair you nested, A favored Bible on your lap rested. Hands folded, worship sincere. Jesus invited, Jesus is there. And I thought What a blessing for a Dad to seek … Continue reading The Light at Dawn
May 31 I journaled my way across Texas’s panhandle last June, writing things like this: I’ve noticed the plants here grow together. Only occasionally is a shrub brave enough to weather the prairie alone. And those that do wear brambles to prove their fortitude. My Missouri home is green and humid. The contrast between Southwestern … Continue reading Shrubs and Trees and Living Water
A friend and I were talking the other day about Colorado. The conversation made me giddy because mountains might be my happiest place. I love hikes on trails that wind up toward far-flung views, so our trip to Westcliffe last summer was the stuff of dreams. I remember waking at six one morning, pouring coffee … Continue reading See the World–And Its Creator–Right Where You Are
