a five minute friday piece | excuse

Every Friday, I spend five minutes or so writing on a word prompt from the Five Minute Friday community. Then, I hit publish. Good for the writing muscles and for cultivating a playful approach to the writing work that can sometimes be taken oh-so-seriously.

when the noise only grows emptier for the volume
and the pitch-perfect performance tastes stale

when being present is counted as presence
and we’re taught to teach by talking instead of listening

when what matters is how well we line the mold
and not who we already image-bearing are

…

an open letter to you-in-the-middle | a five minute friday piece

Every Friday, I spend five minutes or so writing on a word prompt from the Five Minute Friday community. Then, I hit publish.

Good for the writing muscles and for cultivating a playful approach to the writing work that can sometimes be taken oh-so-seriously.

Dear You-Living-In-The-Middle,

There’s an insidious belief bullying our culture.

It’s the belief of straight-line-ism.

This belief teaches that we should know precisely what we want, where we’re going, and exactly how to get there. The starting point is important, but the destination is preeminent.

And the middle? What happens in…

a poem | five minute friday piece

we hide
from life’s
hammers
the ones that threaten
then smash
and leave us with
broken pieces

it hurts and
it isn’t fair and
if we could read crystal balls
maybe
our world wouldn’t
shatter quite so much

but when the heavy iron
falls and the shards
splinter apart
we find out
exactly
what’s inside

no place to
hide anymore
that latent
self
the one made
good and beautiful with
good and beautiful dreams
crafted by a
good and beautiful
God
now has a passport
to where she’s always
belonged

straight through those
broken…

a five minute friday piece | savor

Like most words chosen at the beginning of 2020, mine seemed ironic by the year’s midpoint.

savor

How do you “savor” a pandemic?
Loneliness?
Thousands of deaths?

You don’t, of course.
You savor what’s found in between — the moments of joy squeezed out like drops of lemon juice.

With spring bursting out of every crack in the earth, and a newborn who’d arrived the week lockdowns began, our little family of four took near-daily after-dinner drives.

Cruising along country roads, we survived the sense of uncertainty enveloping every decision we made or…

// a five minute friday piece | redeem //

desperate

this is the word that comes to mind when I watch us
so uncomfortable
confronted by people’s pain
so panicked by the possibility of not understanding how the pieces fit together

petrified to imagine
a Kingdom
without walls
and a King
whose agenda is more than just
resurrection

we skip lamentation in favor of logic
shut our eyes to our contribution to the casualties
gloss over grief in our frantic, frenzied rush to redeem
suffering

i did not ask for you
to explain my redemption to me
i did not ask for…

//a five minute friday piece | possible //

Every Friday, I spend five minutes or so writing on a word prompt from the Five Minute Friday community. Then, I hit publish. Good for the writing muscles.

i taste the quality of the word —
texture switching from fullness to thin
line of threaded hope

what is possible?

realists don’t dance with this word,
they march with it
holding leash firmly
afraid, a little, to do the deed of dreaming

we want to plant our promise and hold onto it too
possible is less invitation to let imagination
soar through starry skies
than…

//a five minute friday piece//

Every Friday, I spend five minutes or so writing on a word prompt from the Five Minute Friday community. Then, I hit publish. Good for the writing muscles.

let the world wake
alive
glowing
with a roar
felt in the bare feet of the willing ones

in mighty silence
embryonic earth-stars
shift skyward
sparks of sunshine
inherited by seedtime thrill seekers

light lifts life
from her temporary tomb
as small-bodied watchers
bear witness
to the annual never-failed Experiment

This piece first appeared on my instagram.

View today’s Five Minute Friday link up.

I write to…

//a five minute friday piece//

Every Friday, I spend five minutes or so writing on a word prompt from the Five Minute Friday community. Then, I hit publish. Good for the writing muscles.

God,

You are good.

I am grateful for your goodness,

how it spreads,

and sprouts,

and m u l t i p l i e s.

Enable me to let your goodness keep growing.

Let me ‘laugh the laughter of the freed’

Throwing my head back with joy at the silly and simple things.

Enable me to tell a true story

To write words of wisdom won…