I’m a stressed mom. I’m stressed too often. I worry that August’s most prominent memory of his childhood will be my contorted anxiety face leaning over his carseat, snapping at him and plugging his seatbelt in tight. Sometimes he asks me, “Mama, are you stressed?” Sometimes he tells Chris when he comes home: “Mommy was really stressed today.” Oh, how I hate that. That is not the story I want for my boys’ childhood. Sweet Lord, I beg from my... Read more
“When new clothing is issued, the old should be immediately returned to be put in store for distribution to the poor. Two tunics and two cowls should be enough for each member of the community to provide for night-wear and for laundering. Anything more than that would be excessive and this must be avoided… There is one saying, however, from the Acts of the Apostles which the superior must always bear in mind, namely that proper provision was made according... Read more
Hey friends, I’m working on the new header for our move over to Patheos and I need your thoughts on my two possible headers. Will you leave me a comment with your opinion? Which do you like the best? or PS Special thanks to my brother, Jason Boyett, for the design and to Erin Molloy Photography for the general awesomeness! Read more
Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what He has done for me. (Psalm 66:14) For the prayer book I’ve been following for the past few weeks (The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle) and its collection of scripture that keeps sticking in my head. Like Psalm 66:14. “I will tell you what he has done for me.” What a beautiful calling to live into… A house littered with toys and... Read more
I don’t consider myself a “music person.” I love music and I always have. It moves me and speaks to me, though usually, it’s the lyric that lingers longest in my heart. Though I have spent a good portion of my life dancing in my closet while simultaneously buttoning my shirt and using my toothbrush as a microphone in the morning, I’m just not one of those people who talks about music in the cool kid language. I have nothing... Read more
I have this very heavy, beautiful, hard covered block of pages, also known as Robert Lowell’s Collected Poems. Chris gave it to me for Christmas nine years ago and there’s something about it–Its beauty? Its big words? Its scholarly poet on the front cover?–that makes me scared too really get into it. And that’s crazy because Robert Lowell‘s poems on their own are always powerful to me. That’s why for my poem a day, for at least a while, I’m going... Read more
Two and a half years ago, when I moved to San Francisco, I had a 15-month-old and I had just left the job I most loved in the world. I was lonely and anxious and I had this tiny little seed of an idea in my head. It had to do with the books I’d been reading about Benedictines and the possibility that mothers and monks had a lot more in common than I’d ever thought. I had this thought... Read more
“Any guest who happens to arrive at the monastery should be received as we would receive Christ himself, because he promised that on the last day he will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me… As soon as the arrival of a guest is announced, the superior and members of the community should hurry to offer a welcome with warm-hearted courtesy. First of all, they should pray together so as to seal their encounter in the peace of... Read more
For a sweet birthday celebration. Look at that guy in his hat! For a backyard and dear friends and good food and all these kids running around who somehow belong to us. How did that happen? For how turning one automatically makes a baby into a little man. All the sudden Brooksie is such a grown up. Yesterday he insisted on walking all the way into August’s school. No being carried for him. So, I held his hand and we... Read more
“What is it about the human spirit that we believe we can rise again, become more than our former self told us we could be? I believed…” Those are the first words of a documentary teaser for Trade in Hope, a story about human trafficking filmed in Austin, Texas. Yes, that’s right, a documentary about modern-day slavery in the US, in my hometown. Did you know that twelve is the average age of of entry into prostitution in the US?... Read more
Micha Boyett
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