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The Bishop Came to Our House

Yesterday, in church, the Bishop came to our house. She wore her gold hat and white robes. She carried a carved shepherd’s crook, because she is the shepherd of our souls here on earth. At her side stood a tiny woman called the Bishop’s chaplain, as if the Bishop gets to travel with her BFF spiritual friend always. The Bishop was...

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New Cowboy Boots: A Conversation

Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with the need to buy a pair of new cowboy boots. Every Christmas when I was a little girl, we got a new pair of boots. In lucky years, we got the whole nine yards: turquoise jeans, snap shirt, belt, hat, and the boots. My beloved husband agreed to wedge this shopping trip into an already complicated, whirlwind trip...

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You’re Swimming Streamline

The guests are gone, the washing begun. A wind arrived and blew slashing rain down the streets. The palms shook their heads like Peanuts characters dancing to Linus’s piano. Then the storm, too, passed. Water filled the potholes; for the sake of your suspension, beware the unseen. I, who made no food for Thanksgiving, baked cookies...

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Putting Out Fires

My father used to tell a story about his job and putting out fires. He sat at his desk, concentrating, and the phone would ring. A problem had flared up, demanding his immediate attention, diverting him from what he really needed to be doing. It drove him bonkers—when would he get his real work done?—until he realized putting out fires was his real...

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Happy New Year’s, NOLA

There’s a softness in the New Orleans air. The littlest birds make the loudest flutter of wings as they fly into the cedar next door. The white pup down the street calls his barking hello from his balcony, the door behind him open to let in the soft air. The sun slants. The man working on his house speaks, nodding. Black garbage cans dot the...

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What Do You Do?

Searching for something else, I found this. It made me nostalgic, and I thought I’d share. What Do you Do? I’m telling an acquaintance about our get-away place in North Alabama. “It’s on the Tennessee River in the middle of nowhere. When we loan it out, we always tell people to bring food – it’s not the kind of place you can...

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Christmas is a Mess

Christmas is a mess. Rolls of wrapping paper cluttering the table. Gifts stacked haphazardly in family groupings. Or wrapped but not yet mailed. Gold and green ribbon curls into a knotted tangle, too much of a metaphor for my emotions. What should be done hasn’t. Everyday life doesn’t stop just because Christmas is coming. There’s...

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Bookends of Time

Ahhhhhh. It’s that time of the year. Magical, it seems to me. Not the upcoming “holidays” of our American Christian lives. I’m talking about the perfectly bookended times in between. 1st Bookend Time We’re starting our first bookend now, that fulsome (yes, I used fulsome in a blog post in 20221) time of the weeks...

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Saying Hello

Some of y’all are new here, so this post is simply saying hello. And what to expect. Which is only predictable based on reviewing past blog posts, because I have no plan or structure, never rhyme, but hopefully reason. I post what’s on my mind or in my heart. Often, that includes thoughts generated by my Sunday morning in church....

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