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What We Talk About When We Talk About Mom

May 13, 2013

The day before Mother’s Day, I posed this query through my monthly email newsletter and by way of my various social media channels:

Describe the best qualities of your mother in three words.

what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-moms

CC Image (Adapted) • quintad on Flickr

The response was rather overwhelming, and many people waxed eloquent about their literal reason for existence. At our last meeting, my homegroup also chimed in, and I surreptitiously transcribed their answers. Here, in total, are all the words that describe “Mom.” Bold and red means the term was used multiple times.

In Family, Life awesome, mom, mother, Mother's Day

Reflections on Boston’s Day of Darkness

April 16, 2013

CC Image • hahatango on Flickr

I. Sunday with Solomon

Two days ago I listened to a sermon from Ecclesiastes 11. While the pastors’ words focused on the positives that can be gleaned from that passage, Solomon litters the whole of Ecclesiastes with somber reminders that life is fleeting. (How many self-help books use Ecclesiastes as a starting point?) In 11:8, Solomon says, “So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many.”

The pastor also referenced Ecclesiastes 9:11, “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.”

II. Monday Morning in Proverbs

As a spiritual practice new to me, I’m transcribing a little of the book of Proverbs every morning. Word by word, I’m working my way through all 31 chapters, hoping that through the repetition of reading, writing, and re-reading, some of the words will stick to my soul. Yesterday, I completed Chapter 3, which contains the well-known verse 5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

There’s also verse 25, likely much less well-known: “Do not be afraid of sudden terror …. ”

In Christianity, Life Boston, Ecclesiastes, fiction, Madeline L'Engle, prayer, Proverbs, Solomon

In this third chapter from Madeline L’Engle’s fascinating Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, I was arrested by the fact that in my often vain attempts toward maturity, I’ve forgotten how incredibly freeing it was to be a child.

“All children are artists, and it is an indictment of our culture that so many of them lose their creativity, their unfettered imaginations, as they grow older.”

In one of those highly coincidental moments in life, these were the first words I read after finishing Matt Appling’s Life After Art, a book that tackles our loss of creativity as adults and the need for us to revert to particular modes of thinking that came so naturally to us as children. Appling’s book is a great continuation of the conversation that L’Engle starts in this particular chapter. (Read my review of Life After Art).

“A lot of my adult life has been spent in trying to overcome this corruption, in unlearning the dirty devices of this world, which would dull our imaginations, cut away our creativity.”

If you’re not particularly creative, have you ever thought about why that might be? Can you remember a time as a child when you painted with abandon, wrote without fear, or sang without embarrassment? What stole that outlet from you? Even for artists that strive to better their craft every day, I think these are important questions to consider. As I read in Life After Art, if we’re created in the image of God and God is a creative being, we must inherently be creative beings. Such creativity can take on a number of forms. Maybe you’re losing out on some of the joy of life because you’re not creating. I’d encourage you to take even baby steps toward regaining the creative spirit you may once have had as a child.