Prepare the Table

Preparations and Feast We start early. Dressed in layers that reflect the cool spring morning, and the day of feasting to come. Waiting for the sun to rise. We are a faithful few, gathered and quiet – maybe a little impatient – steam rising from our cups, waiting. As the light blinks above the tree-line, […]

We Were Never Meant to Walk Alone

Charting a Course Alone “You can be anything you want,” they said. “If you can dream it, you can be it,” we were told. My generation grew up believing we could follow our bliss, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and every other cliche of the American dream. We were led to believe we were […]

Post-Reflections on the Buffalo, New York Shooting Massacre

Discerning the Content of my Heart As a little girl, the Walnut Park Fred Meyer’s felt more like church or a mini family reunion rather than a grocery store. Centered at the heart of our small Black community—laughter, joy and service stocked shelves and overstuffed aisles.  I witnessed the practice of unconditional love and collective […]

Peering Through Fog

Fog rolled in last summer, hovering outside my window above the Puget Sound for weeks. It obscured what is familiar, the landscape of the everyday. I could not see two feet beyond its heavy curtain. In the distance a foghorn bellowed, “I am here” to boats, creatures, people displaced by limited vision. From the shoreline […]

The Burden of Discernment

When I first became a Christian, I saw portentous signs everywhere. Unable to find a parking space? God was directing me elsewhere. Mysterious feeling when I see a person? God must want me to witness to them. A strong emotion during a song? God must have a special message for me. I saw meaning in […]

What We Waive

Here, between the corners of this flat, concrete square— is the crushing weight of contradiction, everywhere: Cameras, hidden, in pedestrian plain sight. One guard pats me down at the fence with steely, cold precision— while a second scolds a tiny toddler squeezing through another. (The one that protects the towering monument above from an onslaught […]

The Gentleness of Dusk and Dawn

The Longing Arms   Emptiness filled now and spilling when arms hold and hush the long anticipated one- sweet love requited.   Did I know how empty they were- my arms, heart- before you? You laughed at the emptiness and swallowed it whole.   …of the wind she is, a soft kiss mystery come alive […]

To Grieve and Grow

“I’m gonna need you to sing a little louder,” Paul said with a flirtatious grin. “Or I’ll have to move you closer so I can hear you.” He grabbed the sides of my chair and gently pulled me forward until my body filled the space between his long, bony legs. He softly picked the tune […]

Podcast: How Shattered Expectations Lead to Hope with Tatyana Claytor

Native Bermudian Tatyana Claytor is a writer, academic, and mother of four. A navigator of multiple cultures and life experiences, Tatyana meets us in The Mudroom today for a discussion on how expectations shape us and our perception of God. Lean in for her extraordinary story . . . http://mudroomblog.com/how-relational-expectations-shape-our-vision-of-god/ Tatyana’s Website: https://tatyanastable.com/ Links to Tatyana on the […]

Opening to a New Way to Bloom

Early in the healing process of a severe manic episode related to my bipolar disorder, I felt the nudge and a voice I believed to be God’s. I heard, “I want you to share your story. This story you are living now.” The only emotion I felt was terror. I quaked in my sneakers as […]

A Procedure for a Clean Heart

  I did not have any idea what to expect.   Anticipation of the unknown filled me with fear.   My body trembled uncontrollably. Unsure if the shivers were from the cold, metal table or from the overwhelming dread, a tear formed on my left cheek. The kind nurse wiped it away.   “It’s alright […]

The Unlived Life

You go there. I do too, sometimes. Here’s mine: I’m in a packed-out bar sitting at a table, elbow-to-elbow, with my closest friends. The burly man on stage does tap-“check-check” as he tiptoes around some electric guitars, an upright piano, maybe even a few drums, and then slips into the spotlight. “C’mon down!” he proclaims […]

Jesus on My Street

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of […]

Podcast: Through Thorns of Belonging

The walk on the narrow path towards belonging means scraping past a million thorny thickets. Writer and poet Prasanta Verma feels your pain. She meets us in The Mudroom after navigating the twists, turns, and pinpricks of belonging in ways few of us can imagine. Join us, today, for a way forward on the path […]