Faith – Beth Bates

Shifting Away from “Us and Them”: A Mother Who Knows, Speaks (Guest Post)

“Jesus is grieved by this crap and He is calling all of us to step up and stand with the oppressed”

Poetry, Official Palace Language of Wow: Another Gem from Thanks Help Wow

On an ice-glazed morning, today’s reading thaws my cockles. Thanks again, Annie L: When all is said and done, spring is the main reason for Wow. Spring is crazy, being all hope and beauty and glory. She is the resurrection. Spring is Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. /Continue reading “Poetry, Official Palace Language of Wow: Another Gem from Thanks Help Wow”

A Gem from Help, Thanks, Wow: A Word About Heart Armor

“Sin is not the adult bookstore on the corner. It is the hard heart, the lack of generosity, and all the isms, racism and sexism and so forth. But is there a crack where a ribbon of light might get in, might sneak past all the roadblocks and piles of stones, mental and emotional andContinue reading “A Gem from Help, Thanks, Wow: A Word About Heart Armor”

Be Thanking

Living on pins, needles these past months since Surviving a second heart attack in eleven years I’m finally Beginning to relax, Feeling better, better than back to normal, lighter, back to Working at my Marketing job for a Publishing company, which isn’t all that creative but freed me to reserve my creative energies for Digging into deep thesis revisions, finallyContinue reading “Be Thanking”

Praise Craze Part 2: Us and Them, “Love Take Me-Love Take Me Over,” Especially When Faced With A Smoking Handicap Parking Tag Fraud

So these ideas (you know, from Part 1 wherein I sang Amazing Grace with a naked stranger) began pinging around inside my head the other morning as I tooled around in my car between the bank and Target. In an effort to refocus my thoughts from Twitter, kid worries, my thesis and job woes onto Something BiggerContinue reading “Praise Craze Part 2: Us and Them, “Love Take Me-Love Take Me Over,” Especially When Faced With A Smoking Handicap Parking Tag Fraud”

Praise Craze Part 1: Singing Amazing Grace Naked In the Shower With a Naked Stranger

Certain church types are really into praise music. They engage in a practice that must strike non-churchies as silly, ridiculous, and maybe even a little embarrassing. They—okay, we—have this bizarre habit of singing at full voice, under the steeple with of all the peeple and also within the privacy of our own earbuds, songs to proclaim doctrinal tenetsContinue reading “Praise Craze Part 1: Singing Amazing Grace Naked In the Shower With a Naked Stranger”

It’s Not Flashy, It’s Not the Himalayas Or Vegas; BUT Giving Back (and not) Can Happen Here and Small

Brooke and Jeff are taking a year away from their real jobs as social worker and physical therapist to travel the world writing and photographing for a social justice travel magazine—first to Rwanda, then Cambodia, Nepal, Vegas and Cuba. Kind of kicks the shit out of the cans of creamed corn and kidney beans I plunked into a grocery bag and placed on my front porch for a local church to pick up for their food drive a few Sundays ago.

Why I’m Not Comfortable Using the Word Motherf*^#er (but please feel free, unless you’re my kid)

Short answer: I have teenagers. “Like they don’t hear it at school,” you say. “Or say it themselves.” Yeah, I realize teenagers are fluent in profanity—I was in junior high and high school once. But that doesn’t mean I’m off the hook from preserving for my daughter, 13, and son, 16, one pocket in theirContinue reading “Why I’m Not Comfortable Using the Word Motherf*^#er (but please feel free, unless you’re my kid)”

When Words Fail, Poetry

Obama quoted Scripture. Addressing the nation about the massacre of babies in an elementary school in a picturesque Connecticut town yesterday afternoon, he wiped a tear and invoked the Psalms. In a torrent of Where was God? Why did God allow this to happen? How can a loving God . . . ? ? ?,Continue reading “When Words Fail, Poetry”

My Next Right Thing This Morning

I had a writing professor who recommended copying, literally, tangibly, work by authors whose style most lights your writing fuse. Pick an author, prop open a book, lay it next to the laptop, and type the words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters until, I suppose, some sort of osmosis (and muscle memory?) occurs.

Sanctuary in Toronto Thoughts from Therapist Friend Who’s Blind

My friend’s blog posts from his recent trip to hang out with junkies on the streets of Toronto are compelling and well written, I think, to the point that I want to share his blog. It’s beautiful. Check it out. http://cshawn.wordpress.com/2009/08/

Working in the Dark

Blind woman who gets lost from the curb to the door of her workplace: “It’s hard when you’re in the dark all the time. It’s always dark for me.” Vocational counselor: “But you’ll be so good at getting around, better than your friends who can see. Your sighted friends can only see in the light,Continue reading “Working in the Dark”