Our Christmas letter is online this year at SteveandAmanda.com.
"This has been a somewhat quiet year. A little bit sad, a little bit happy, a little bit nothing much. Due to the underwhelmingness, we didn’t get around to mailing out a Christmas letter, but here’s our online version to fill you in."
Swiss dotted icing
twisting into strands
as thick as rope
silken and catching the light
of three reflected lamps
giving the seedlings
a false sun
in this twilight
darkening the glass
that separates the shoots
from the rain
that would quench them.
{Inspired by Prompt 2 — "write a water poem" — from the April Poem-a-Day Challenge hosted by Robert Lee Brewer at Poetic Asides, and while looking at my seedlings basking under fluorescent lights in the window and contemplating that I would have to water them even though it was pouring outside. The title and deeper meaning are from this Gerard Manley Hopkins poem and relate to my Lenten challenge.}
Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable …
Get your pencils (er, laptops, whatever) out and start scribing! You are a poet, my friend, and by the end of this month:
You will have 30 spanking-new poems!
The poetry book I published
Go to Poetic Asides by Robert Lee Brewer to find the very first prompt for this year's challenge: Write a lonely poem.
The complete guidelines are here. Basically, write the poems, and then select your top five to submit by May 5 for consideration as the top 50 of the month.
Get writing, and I'll see you at the finish line with all our lovely new poems! Yea!
Since I have such a big following, I like to give back by throwing some attention to others. Look at my followers list if you don't believe me. Four people. Four! Ignore that two of them are me and ... me. It says it's Steve, but I logged into his account and followed myself because I got tired of being the only one. Notice he doesn't even have an icon; that's how much he cares about using that feature.
I kind of doubt I have any readers who don't read Steve's blog already, but just in case!
Steve's been reading through a couple books on simple churches and the history of the church by Frank Viola and blogging about his reading in "Reimagining the church: a conversation."
Check out this quote from Part 2 of the series that made my eyes well up:
I feel like more of a semi-educated part-time volunteer clergy person than 'laity'. In other words, I know enough about being in charge and thinking I've got good answers to have enough of a chip on my shoulder that I can look down on people. I know, it's ugly, but that's the truth of it: It becomes pretty easy to feel self-satisfied.
Until the day, that is, that the people who you think you are trying to help turn out to have more of a handle on this whole "love" thing than you feel you do. Until the day you run headlong into a dose of humility and find that most of the 'laity' isn't that interested in accumulating hordes of information but is just trying to live a simple faith and trust in God, one moment at a time, one foot in front of the other. I have learned more about the grace, beneficence, love, and beauty of God by being a willing receiver of others' ordinary stories than I've grasped by reading the most eloquent apologies of the faith. I don't see myself as anti-intellectual or anti-clergy by any means, but as pro-laity, pro-freedom of speech, pro-respect for those hidden in corners, pro-wrestling with how that plays out in community. Because either Jesus Christ is alive, active, and available to everyone with the most simple belief in and love of him, or Jesus Christ is hidden behind a veil that is accessible to only the few with the most learning and wisdom and righteousness and devotion.
All right, head on over and take it in. It's like the book report to end all book reports.
Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
Yesterday, when Steve was out running errands, Corin was sitting on my lap when he passed gas.
"Corin! Did you just toot?" I asked in German (impressed much?).
"No! Apa tooted."
I thought that was pretty clever of him, to blame it on an absent — yet admittedly gaseous — family member.
Click over to Catapult Magazine to read my latest article: "Small church, big church: A search for just right."
I’ve had a see-sawing relationship with the size of our churches, with all the vertigo and shakiness that metaphor suggests.
...
I suspect small churches are withering, and that big churches are superficial. But if a medium church stays medium, then isn’t it stagnating?
Making a new batch of Muddy Buddies every time I run out,
without judgment or query
Cleaning up our own muddy buddy
without disdain or distaste
Hiding under a blanket
for hours
and
taking a 2-year-old
to the zoo
Fetching me a drink
from the fridge
and
a toothbrush
for the kid
Cleaning the place
for your mother-in-law
and
hanging up
my shirts
Knowing my love language
even when I don't
And even though it's not your language,
speaking it fluently.
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"Swim free from me / from this pool out into the / wild, wide ocean." These collected works span twenty years of Amanda Caldwell's poetry, from the tasks of school to the allures of nature, from the joy of married love to the grief of loss, from the first steps of parenthood to the rocky journey of faith. Arranged by season, the poems bring the reader full circle through a representative year of blessings, challenges, and transitions.
Buy my collection of poetry through CreateSpace or at Amazon.
