October 25, 2004
I'm thinking about emergent churches again. A few months ago I interacted with some folks at a small church in Florida. This was before I'd read one article about emergent church, so I was just operating in ignorance. I was so moved by these people and how earnest and open they were, I even pondered moving down to join them in whatever they were doing. Little did I know they were doing emergent things, pushing couches into their meeting space, lighting a few candles. What I did notice was that they were keeping things simple, focusing on Jesus. We attended a beach service that included several different churches including theirs, and I felt so drawn to them that I wrote them a note telling them how their contribution was what affected me the most. They wrote back a gracious and humble reply saying something like, "I wish I could say we're emergent church on the cutting edge, but we're really just a bunch of ragamuffins huddling together trying to figure out life." It was charming, disarming, and honest. I looked for the letter, because I saved it for weeks. Unfortunately I can't find it. There's something especially appealing to me about that attitude, however, with the idea that they don't have everything figured out and they're just trying to help each other live out their faith in Jesus Christ day by day.

On a completely different note, I'm going to try double-posting here and at Blogger. If anyone has opinions on which is preferable, please let me know. You can email me (see above). Here's the link:
www.contemplativemom.com/blog/

October 24, 2004
Every few months I try to find something to attend that's for writers. Sometimes I've found the speaking engagement of a favorite author, or a writing gathering of some sort. This past weekend, I went to a small "colloquium," as they called it, that offered workshops led by Vinita Hampton Wright, Lil Copan, and Phyllis Tickle. I admire all three and it was close, so I signed up with an old college friend of mine. I realize how isolated I am as a stay-at-home mom when I get out to something like this; I'm deeply affected by hanging with like-minded people, and there's a huge part of me that needs the like-mind of writer-reader-thinkers. When those writer-reader-thinkers are also fellow believers in Jesus Christ, it's even richer.

The colloquium was held on a small college campus, so my friend and I opted to buy a meal ticket and eat at the dining commons. We are now over 15 years away from our own college experience, so it was a nostalgic choice. In our opinion, the food was great! There were far more choices than we ever had way back in '85, let's say. In this particular setting, it seemed that most students were vegans. The vegan options were set apart, separated by a wall, even. Cubes of tofu were offered on the salad bar and potato bar, along with lentils and hummus. Vegans would have been on their own to choose wisely among the sparse selections at our dining commons at our Big Ten university in the 1980s.

A part of me wanted to go back to school, take graduate writing courses, and become a vegan.
Instead, I'm back home fixing bacon and eggs for my kids for breakfast; writing a blog, a few e-mails, and a non-academic book project.

I'm grateful for an escape now and then, a chance to dream of different lives and possibilities. But I'm grateful, too, to come home to this life and the possibilities within it. A creative life works within restrictions and boundaries, using what's available to invent, build, form and experiment. That's what I must do. To keep up my writing in the context of motherhood, I must work within certain "restrictions," if you will, though I don't like the implication that kids are restrictions, so that's not the right word. It's just that the way I'm choosing to be a parent results in time limitations. Within those self-imposed boundaries, therefore, I must experiment with when and what and how I might write.

And so I shall.