Archive for September 2012
Of Football and Family
Ocher leaves flit across lawns and scrape streets. Homecoming teens flaunted crimson and black school colors, and students of all sizes bravely decked cheeks with ebony under-eye sun glares. High school parade floats careened down narrow suburban streets to lawn-chaired spectators. Tootsie rolls, suckers and tough gum wads crashed to the ground, causing gentle riots.…
Read MoreA Celestial Slant on Cowboys
In a grove of glossy dark evergreens at the bottom of a ravine, red, brown and white horses congregated and side-stepped on the rocky ground. Like a scene from a wrangling cowboy western, a man astride a red horse leaned low to listen. Galloping in from the north, south, east and west, his reconnaissance men…
Read MoreOf Gardens and Churches
Falling silently and nearly invisible, the rain soaks deep into the grass. Slow, steady, unchanging. The effect at first is almost negligible. What good could come from this small amount? But subtly quietly, it continues. Water seeps into brittle grass, bounces off grey weathered deck planks, and into freshly dug raspberry beds. The soil blackens…
Read MoreConfessions of a Robbed Robin Hood
At an abandoned gas station across the street, they loitered. Cheeky round things, peeking through the foliage, blushed in the sun. While land battles were waged through pocket picket signs on yards and election-year newspaper articles about possible big box super stores, these coy ones loitered, blossomed, and hung out silent in a forgotten corner.…
Read MoreMulti-tasking Moms and Stirred Up Spirits
Hissing, bubbling coffee percolates nearby, steam rising from the black appliance top. An airplane drones sleepily overhead as cool breezes pour through my open windows. Morning forays into facebook earlier had alerted me to further uprisings in the Middle East. Clicking to BBC world news, I read and prayed, scrolling pages. Wiping kitchen counters, slicing…
Read MoreOf Fires and Friendships: And How Do You Be a Good Friend?
After following orange detour signs around winding silo-topped farms and rolled up bales of hay, the state park road dropped down a hill and along a glassy river. Camp sites sprinkled both sides of the road and we crunched into gravely sites. Later, wrapped in cool autumn night, we folded marinated chicken, red onions and…
Read MoreSix Essentials of a Great Youth Program
Summer heat pours through a September window, and my student bends head over her math notebook. Legos tinkle in the distance as preschooler relishes rest time. Our youth group switches back to school hours tonight, so sixth graders through eighth graders will separate from the ninth through twelfth graders. Youth pastor husband and I love…
Read MoreHow to Stretch Summer Long
Photo credit At seven am this morning, loud electronic chirping echoed through our house. Narrowing it down to the fire alarm near the kitchen, my husband perched on rickety wooden chair, pushing buttons, searching for a battery plate, and unwired it from the wall. Nothing worked and he eventually had to race off to worship…
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