Being Serious About Playing

Maturity and Flourishing / Ordinary Life / Work and Rest

I taught a course last semester called Vocational Orientation—a course designed to help students uncover their divinely appointed callings in life. I began with…

Psalms in the Dark

Family / Ordinary Life / Safe Place / Work and Rest

I’ve always thought of myself as intuitive because that is how I score on all personality tests. It is supposed to bless me with…

Offhanded Joy

Community / Faith / Hospitality / Maturity and Flourishing / Ordinary Life / Safe Place / Work and Rest

Dedicated: To my friends who helped the homeless of Louisiana. To those whose ate mangoes on a beach in Hawaii while their water pipes…

Over the Rainbow

Community / Creation / Maturity and Flourishing / Ordinary Life / Work and Rest

Over The Rainbow Something died in the guts of our house. As it ripened and decayed, Denis searched for it in among the cobwebs…

Moments of Perfection…Almost

Community / Ordinary Life / Work and Rest

Have you ever experienced this? Occasionally something occurs which seems to carry not a single flaw. Amidst all the brokenness of life an oasis…

The cost of creativity

Art / Work and Rest

Some people are good at catchy titles and headlines, but I am not. I complained earlier this week over the effort it took to…

Faster

Creation / Ordinary Life / Safe Place / Work and Rest

Faster [This essay first appeared in the December 1999 issue of Notes From Toad Hall.] December is a bad month for speed and stress.…

Listening Before Writing

Community / Work and Rest

I have a new journal, creamy white lined pages in a black moleskin cover with an elastic band that holds it closed. A much…

Bird Feeders

Creation / Work and Rest

A few months back a young couple spent a weekend with us at Toad Hall. Scott had graciously come to help us plaster and…

The Journey Homeward

Art / Work and Rest

Suddenly you know you’re going in the wrong direction. You look back and remember… a place of clatter and quiet, of work and rest,…