I’m looking at the almost thirty-year-old gazebo that stands in our backyard, and once again contemplating its fate. It’s sturdy, albeit with a small roof leak that drips when it’s pouring rain. It’s in desperate need of a fresh coat of white paint, and that I can give it. But it leans slightly to one… Continue reading Invitations

For mothers sending children into the world A mother’s milk doesn’t trickle in in the hours after her newborn slips or tears out of her body. Her breasts don’t fill slowly to meet the need. Her infant’s suckle does not call forth A gentle swelling. No. The filling is sudden, an explosion of heat and… Continue reading A Poem of Grief

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we are known for our wet winters. However.....**she turns to make sure nobody is looking and then whispers**...we have had the mildest January and early February that I can remember. It has been odd to process though, because I have in the past two years begun to really embrace the… Continue reading Spreading Sunshine

There are always deer out when I drive home in the late evenings. In the rural areas around my house, there are clusters of woodland left uncleared and wide open fields that are not always pastured. It is in those places that I see them. And they are always there, at the same time, no… Continue reading What I wrote during Advent

I had coffee this morning with a lifelong friend and her two youngest children while my own and her older two were in school. In middle and high school, we were the two in our friend group who were the “goody goody” Christian girls who attended the large Evangelical churches with our families. We have… Continue reading Loving into Safety

Every few weeks I write the newsletter for our church, and I have decided to start cross-posting them here! Enjoy! I am a Sesame Street kid. I grew up with Gordon and Maria, learning to count to 10 in Spanish through song and how to dance myself to sleep with Ernie. While watching the Christmas… Continue reading Cascade Church Newsletter

I still remember the details of my morning when five years ago yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled to legalize gay marriage across the country. My four-year old daughter was playing with blocks and mermaid toys. My infant son was cooing in his bouncy chair. I poured black coffee into a rainbow mug and posted a… Continue reading Pride

I wonder how you are doing today. I wonder what the pace of your heart feels like in your chest. I wonder if you are choosing to shower and get dressed, or if you are taking today (and yesterday, and perhaps tomorrow) to stay in your pajamas. I wonder, are you asking yourself “what is… Continue reading Bravery in the Time of Covid-19

Evangelical Christianity has a language. You might speak it yourself, or maybe you’ve at least heard it. But we tend to say things with a kind of “I’m in the club” jargon that helps us all know what we are talking about. This is lingo like “born again”, “once saved, always saved”, and “speaking in… Continue reading Fallen Away