Chris has been out of town for one whole day and already the boys have erupted into dramatic weeping shanigans. (Both lasting longer than 20 minutes.) I’m spent. Also, I’m thankful: For Brooksie’s intense love for his dad, even if yesterday his response to my comforting words, “Mama loves you,” were “No! Daddy!” (Last week the whole Daddy Phase was cute but now I’m kind of over it. Even so! I’m grateful he loves his dad.) I’m thankful for afternoons... Read more
“We rest in order to honor God and his creation, which suggests that not to rest dishonors both.” -Judith Shulevitz, The Sabbath World The thing about Sabbath is that there are still always dishes to do and the kids are still themselves. There are diapers to change and stories to read. And that’s my job all week long, right? Can there really be a day when I rest from the demands of raising children? There is paper all over... Read more
Love this: “Mystify us, arouse us and confuse us.” If only we prayed that way more often? From The Sacrament of the Present Moment, written in the 18th century. Read more
Last year in Austin, Chris was away for work and I couldn’t get myself together to get the boys to the service and forfeit our baby’s bedtime, knowing I’d spend the whole service nursing and hushing. That afternoon, after August woke from nap time, I took leaves burned them in a pan in the backyard. And I marked myself. I said, “Micha, you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It felt like most of my moments of... Read more
I knew of Tamara Hill Murphy because I’d come across her blog once or twice. That was before I moved to Austin the same week she did, before we met in the same church on a Sunday morning, before I realized her humor or her wisdom or her willingness to think deep on the hard things and laugh about about the surface ones. I’m grateful we got to live near each other for a season. And I’m grateful to share... Read more
Back in the olden days, I used to complain a lot about San Francisco’s weather. I’m a hot weather, Texas girl, living in a temperate climate. Temperate means on cold days it’s fifty degrees, on warm days it’s 65. And if it gets below or above one of those, every one is Very Bothered. But, I’d like to be thankful today for a week of 65 degrees and sunshine, even though it has dipped back into fifty degrees and gray... Read more
I love Jane Kenyon (who died in 1995). She was the first poet I ever connected with. This quote is from a lecture she once gave titled “Everything I Know About Poetry.” I believe it’s found in a collection of her essays, A Hundred White Daffodils. (But don’t hold me to it.) If you like her, I wholeheartedly recommend her Collected Poems, even (especially!) if you’re new to poetry. Read more
I wrote this post two years ago, when Brooksie was known only as T-Rexy. (These days he’s still “T” most of the time at home.) It’s a reflection that still feels relevant these two years later. Wednesday night, as I entered the church nursery where August had been playing while I was in the Ash Wednesday service, my son looked up at me, first in joy (I love how the simplicity of my presence brings him happiness) and then... Read more
Christine Gough is a mom, a fellow resident of Northern California, and a kindred who is learning how to be, in her words, “one who comes alongside people to help them remember God’s love for them.” I admire her wisdom and I will be enternally grateful that she shared six of her 365 free(!) loaves of bread from Boudin Sourdough Bakery with me. So happy to share her with you today. During my first few years of teaching, I happened upon... Read more
This, as I head into this “Sabbath Lent”: “Stop for one whole day every week, and you will remember what it means to be created in the image of God, who rested on the seventh day not from weariness but from complete freedom. The clear promise is that those who rest like God find themselves free like God, no longer slaves to the thousand compulsions that send others rushing toward their graves.” -Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church Ash... Read more
Micha Boyett
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