Singing Along the Journey
Thoughts about faith and wholeness set to the soundtrack of life

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

A confessing pilgrim…

'Tis the season for confession, at least if you observe the traditional church calendar and the season of Lent.  Some churches, like the Baptist church that I used to attend, only confess during the season of Lent.  I always felt that there was something missing from the service without that confession -- it seemed such an essential part of worship. Now, however, along my pilgrim's road, I have stopped awhile and worshiped with the community at St. Mark's Episcopal Church here on Capitol Hill.  I welcome the chance to confess in community each week, but I am particularly moved by the words of confession that they have included in the…
Read More

Deep roots and remembrance…

Okay, I'll admit it.  I have an obsession with trees.  Wherever I go, I seek out the "local" tree -- that indigenous expression of what it takes to survive and thrive and have long life in that particular little piece of the planet.  I have countless pictures of giant sequoias, and yellow oak trees, and weeping willows, and red maples, and...well, you get the idea. I've just returned from a quick trip to Albuquerque, NM, and I had a chance to take some great pictures of cotton wood trees as I walked along the Paseo del Bosque, part of Albuquerque's great Open Space system.  Truth be told, I was surprised…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More

The light is there, if you look for it…

Sometimes, like today, I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit in awe as the new sun makes itself known in some beautiful setting. I try to take that opportunity when given, because, even though I am by nature an early riser, I often find it difficult to see the sun rise amidst the buildings and the emotional static that comes from living in an urban setting.  Today was one of those days when I took the blessing offered. For me, there is something uniquely mystical about that moment when the light first appears.  This morning, I came out onto the balcony with my tea long before the…
Read More

An arroyo is never the trail…

Last night, I enjoyed the Arena Stage production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel, you know the one that ends with that big song about faith and hope, You Never Walk Alone.  And before that, I spent most of the day in the recording studio editing the final cut of my version of Walk with Me, an arrangement of the two traditional songs, I Want Jesus to Walk With Me and We Must Walk This Lonesome Valley.  Methinks that I am thinking a lot about the road ahead, the path I walk, the path I am called to walk? A couple of weeks ago, I was in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, hiking.  That is not…
Read More

I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Remembering joy…

Monday evening, I participated in the Service of Remembrance at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in my neighborhood.  The Service of Remembrance, or, as some call it, a "blue" service, is the seasonal service for "the rest of us" -- those of us who find the required mirth of the secular season difficult.  I am always surprised that so few people attend these services, because I know that there are so many who find this season challenging.  For me, it was an important time to stop and feel, to sit and pray, and to be with others in a like-hearted space. In one brief hour, whoever planned the service managed to…
Read More

A life (and death) with Grace

Grace.  We all want more of it, don't we?  We all want people to think of us as a person with grace of all kinds -- grace of movement, grace of spirit, and grace of living.  I have been luckier than most -- because for the last 10 years, I have had Grace living in my house, teaching me daily all the possible lessons that you might think about when you think of living with grace (and living with Grace). As I write this, we are walking through the final days of our little Grace's life.  And by the time I make this public so that you can read it…
Read More