fear Archive

  • 36 Psaltery & Lyre: Alex Wiggins, “Sometimes I Fear”

    Posted on December 27, 2012 | 1 Comment
    "Sometimes I fear a body knows when it's dying / and relays urgency to the brain / to make a flourish of praise . . ."

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  • 21 Psaltery & Lyre: Cheryl L. Bruno, “Severed Savior”

    Posted on October 25, 2012 | 2 Comments
    "his love slashing / a cross-hatch in my / heart . . ."

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  • Choosing Faith in the Face of Doubt

    Posted on September 17, 2012 | 10 Comments
    The truth is that some things will hurt and be difficult. The truth is that some questions will never be fully resolved. Part of a mature faith is accepting the inherent ambiguity of life and acting in accordance with our deepest hopes anyway.

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  • Roller Coaster

    Posted on January 5, 2012 | 2 Comments
    A year ago, I was living in a daze. I was spending most nights curled up against my 11 year old daughter's back as she lay on her side in her bed, willing her pain to dissipate, even hoping to absorb it myself.

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  • Santa and I

    Posted on December 22, 2011 | 7 Comments
    The year I turned four or five, we drove to my grandparents in central Wisconsin for Christmas.   Actually, we did this for most years of my early childhood- until I was 8 or so and we moved to Florida.   Making the 1100 mile […]

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  • Finding Peace

    Finding Peace

    Posted on September 22, 2011 | 4 Comments
    Forgiveness.   As babies and young children, we can’t help but forgive those that wrong us.   We have no choice…. we are too dependent.   But somehow along the path to adulthood (and independence) we lose that.   Maybe rightly so- I think there […]

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  • Crash Test

    Posted on September 1, 2011 | 2 Comments
    The thought of any inexperienced driver in charge of a 4,000 pound machine makes me very nervous, but anticipating my own flesh-and-blood inexperienced driver sends me almost into a panic.

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  • The Nursery Window

    Posted on August 4, 2011 | 2 Comments
    "Long ago," he said, "I thought like you that my mother would always keep the window open for me, so I stayed away for moons and moons and moons, and then flew back; but the window was barred, for mother had forgotten all about me, and there was another little boy sleeping in my bed."

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  • Operation Stop Arm

    Posted on July 15, 2011 | 4 Comments
    My neighbor Sheri and I watched motorists pass our children's school bus for years. We took video, called the police, reported tag numbers, complained to the public school department of transportation, pleaded with the PTA for attention to this matter. We were met with "there is nothing we can do" around every single corner.

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  • No Soup For You!

    Posted on June 16, 2011 | 1 Comment
    I recently read this article in the Orlando Sentinel reporting on a third round of arrests of activists arrested for violating an ordinance prohibiting the sharing of food with large groups in a city park more than twice a year.   The group Food Not […]

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  • Fear Factor

    Posted on June 13, 2011 | 8 Comments
    I am terrified right now. In fact, I literally just sent a text to a friend that read, “I am terrified.” You see, this week, I set off for a ten-day silent meditation course. When it’s all said and done, I’ll be there for at […]

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  • “Do you want to end up living under a bridge?”

    Posted on March 17, 2011 | 10 Comments
    This is, reportedly, what my daughter’s second grade teacher asked her class during a fit of frustration over their less-than-enthusiastic preparation for the looming standardized testing.   Several other parents and I were concerned, but felt trapped in the status quo and didn’t really see […]

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  • Hate

    Posted on February 24, 2011 | 7 Comments
    As an antidote to all the love around here lately, I thought I’d offer up a little bit of good old-fashioned hate. I grew up in a very low key household where strong feelings didn’t really have a place.   My typical toddler tantrums were […]

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  • Faith – Worth the Risk?

    Posted on January 16, 2011 | 4 Comments
    *The following is a guest post by Dan Ron Kauk is one of the world’s most renowned rock climbers. A fixture at Yosemite during the climbing season, he’s pioneered routes on some of the most notorious walls, including a few first ascents on El Capitan. […]

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  • Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot?

    Posted on January 3, 2011 | 9 Comments
    The natural recounting of achievements and regrets with an eye to the future feels like a gift.

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  • Banned

    Posted on December 7, 2010 | 23 Comments
    Some conservative religious communities build bonfires or try to get books banned from public libraries, Mormons censor themselves.

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  • The Visitor

    Posted on December 3, 2010 | 6 Comments
    I’m not a movie critic, but I do see lots of movies. I’m not picky. I’ll see a “chick flick” that’s full of clichés and predictable plots. I don’t need movies to be realistic. That always seems like such an absurd criticism: “Oh, that movie […]

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  • The Places That Scare You

    Posted on November 14, 2010 | 7 Comments
    “Confess your hidden faults. Approach what you find repulsive. Help those you think you cannot help. Anything you are attached to, let it go. Go to the places that scare you. – advice from her teacher to the Tibetan Yogini Machik Labdron In 2009, fresh […]

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