Mama Mondays

Just read this in the airport from Elena Aguilar (who is a great teacher coach I follow) and thought it was so good to consider as we go home...  What a Broken Suitcase Reminded Me This Weekend This weekend, as I made my way through the airport—returning from another in-person workshop—the wheel of my suitcase popped off. It had been rolled across cities and sidewalks for years, especially during these recent months of travel to connect with this beloved community in person. And this time, it just gave out. I laughed. And then I paused. Because that moment reminded me how easy it is to push forward without noticing what needs attention—not just in our things, but in ourselves. That suitcase didn’t break because something went wrong. It wore down over time. Just like we all do if we never pause to restore. So I asked myself:  What in me is quietly asking for maintenance, not because I’m falling apart, but because I matter? Maybe that’s a question for you, too. Maybe your next c...

  A Prayer Inspired by a Small Moment in the Story There are moments that seem very small, so small you might miss them: a door held open, a meal dropped off, a birthday remembered, a song lyric in the evening, a seeming aside in the midst of a gospel story.   And yet those can be the moments which somehow end up telling us something big important true about ourselves or about a relationship about an institution or about a family, or even about God.   It runs counter to a world accustomed to  worshipping big and bombastic and demonstrative to take a moment for what is small in the story but you know better, you always have. Small can be vital, small can be life-giving. Small can be the unexpectedly important brick left in the wall, holding back the darkness and the howl.   Don't overlook the small moments when God comes to call. Don't miss the asides and the glances and the sentences and the pauses that remind you, God is humming a song of very particular...

  These quotes below are from a book I've been reading about the Camino.  So excited about sharing this experience together!!!  Pilgrimage is about integration, body and soul, feet, and faith. – Paul Boers, The Way is Made by Walking, page 23   Pilgrimage in its truest sense is religiously motivated travel for the purpose of meeting and experiencing God with hopes of being shaped and changed by that encounter. Pilgrimages are often concretely physical—journeying to a particular place, perhaps with some extraordinary expense and exertion— and spiritual- one hopes to meet God in this travel. – Paul Boers, The Way is Made by Walking, page 41   Church Father Clement of Alexandria famously described prayer as “keeping company with God.” That’s one of my favorite definitions. Walking the Camino was an embodied experience of such companionship, one that informs my regular life back home as well. – Paul Boers, The Way is Made by Walking, page 48   ...

  This was from a few weeks ago but I keep coming back to this and wonder if you might appreciate reading it again today too....  Erin: Danger at the Edge What have a hurricane and a meditation teacher have in common? Diana Butler Bass Aug 21   READ IN APP   I’m at the beach in North Carolina. You may have heard that there’s a hurricane — named Erin — “grazing” the coast here today. The video below was shot about an hour after this morning’s high tide. You might think, “oh, that’s not too bad.” But the sand you see is part of a dune, and it is a hill about eight feet or so above the beach. My phone doesn’t capture depth perception very well. You can sense the fury by looking at the sea oats — the howling wind nearly flattens them. And this is just the very edge of a strong Category 2 hurricane; as the local around here say, “it’s nothing.” The center of this storm is hundreds of miles offshore. But that’s one angry ocean and brutal wind. No sane human is anywhere nea...

a song I loved listening to this past week....   https://youtu.be/_FLBOScximk Slow Me Down Written by Sandra McCracken, Jon Guerra, Leslie Jordan, Wendell Kimbrough, Kate Bluett, Matthew Kaemingk O good shepherd, would you teach me how to rest I’m rushing on, will you make me to lie down Will you build a fold by the waters that refresh Will you call my name and lead me safely out? From my anxious drive to labor on and on From the restless grind that has put my mind to sleep Will you call me back and gently slow me down Will you show me now what to lose and what to keep O Good Shepherd, O Good friend slow me down. When my table’s bent with only greed and gold And my grasping hands are afraid you won’t provide Will you pour the wine that loosens up my hold Set your table here with what truly satisfies On the busy streets trying to make myself a name If the work is yours, there is nothing I can claim Will you home to the pastures of your peace The house...