a Deep South Stargate

I walked into another world today…quite literally. My Tata (Grandma) from Peru was spending her birthday with us out here in Kentucky, and upon her request, she wanted to have Belgian rabbit stew (most delicious!). We quickly found ourselves in a predicament, because although we are in and around the sticks of backwater Western ‘Tuck, we knew we were not gonna find rabbit so easily. The local grocer summed up much of our initial search efforts…”Rabbit? We aint got no rabbit. Only people I know that eat them rabbits shoot ‘em themself.” 

But lo and behold, Kentucky proved yet again to be as perfectly old fashioned as it is resourceful against the problems of life. As is the typical chain of events out here, we knew a friend, who knew a friend, who once knew a guy, that might know someone who could help us. That might not sound too promising to many of you, but out here, as I’ve quickly learned, that’s almost as good as being

Courtly summers

Kentucky has been a corner of His Courts this summer…and has been just what my heart needed. 

The deep peach moons…the fields of locusts…the stars that burn heavy in the night sky… the endless breeze  running its fingers through the younger lake below it…the bullfrogs that chorus with an endurance and vehemence that rivals the prarie of wild bison down the road…not being able to tell the difference between the hellos of strangers and family…because people down here care about one another…the grin that surfaces when you start to recount just how much sweet tea you may have actually consumed in a summer…the renowned small-town challenge here of trying to eat the “Whopper,” a 28 inch pancake…feeling a day pass by the only speed this part of the world knows: slowly, steady and true…seeing bald men watch bald eagles for hours on end…tubing until either your knuckles or fingers give in and start to bleed…having a thrill of a fight

Gospel negotiation

These are the words I most recently spoke to a friend…where I yet again took the position I’ve held for some time now. I wonder though, as I always do when I say the following…is there something I’m missing, or is it really that wonderful, intentional and asking of us when we make our way toward forever with someone?

“I know for myself, that I cannot kiss a girl before marriage. I only want to kiss my wife. This is something  that I’ve failed at more than once, but, that personal, tailor-made conviction from God remains. I cannot do this…I should not want to do this…and through His help, I will continue to not do this. I wonder while it is perhaps not the honorable route everyone need take, why does my extreme, as it ends up being by default, seem so far from what others say is okay for them to take part in…kissing, making out, etc? I wonder if I am just seeing to a very specific God-spun conviction upon my heart for my life, or, are other people just fudging on what was once pursued to be application of Biblical truth, only to end in negotiation into something not entirely truth? Or, is the Truth of everything somewhere in the middle of all our worlds? 

All I can say is that right now for me, I must hold to what God has impressed me to do. But I still do wonder and worry…are others taking an alternative path to relationships, filled with fast-track and short-cut that miss out on the courtly Love-approaches of old? …the lessons found in antiquity from those who have gone before us, and in my opinion, interpreted, applied and surrendered to God’s commands in ways that we’ve only negotiated with? I wonder if we’ve forgotten all about our heart’s motivation

That’s what you do…

My first memories unfortunately had words in them, but I had no use for them in this place. I struggled even then to fall into someone. If I fell, I would hurt, and if I hurt, then I would want to hide, and if I hid, then I might not be found…and simple logic is as simple logic does.

I still toss confidence in the wind, let it circle my truer colors, hoping to be discovered, but hoping more to be explored. But you always held me…with your eyes, with your arms and with your hope.

Through a rosy lens I would brave the world to keep from graying up, I often fell into you…

Far off cries

Given…

Evie…Cleire…

Erin…Trystan…Ginny…

Gillian, Elan, Zoey…

Alex…