Within my own warm keep

8:23 AM Saturday, March 14 After the gradient of greys and dark moody greens of Point Pleasant… After the Market… with a flat white, a plain croissant, and gratitude.  Oh, and two loaves of sourdough. Caffeine, carbs, and gratitude… Went to Laughing Whale and was greeted with “Our first customer and it’s YOU!”  A smile…

Caffeinated Camaraderie

I have written before about my Saturday ritual of going to the Farmer’s Market down by the water. My first stop is usually Laughing Whale for a cup of goodness. Often, the barista there will greet me with “Flat white, right? Kim, is it?”. The last time he did this, I grinned and told him…

A Periodic Table of Hope

When I am truly hot and in need of something to drink, I’m not thinking sparkling water, crushed ice, and a twist of lime, please.  I’m thinking water, from a garden hose, in a glass, from the sink tap in the scoop of my hand (a most useful skill my mother taught us at a…

On beholding…

From the journal…15 October, 2025 6:29 AM…Good Morning. Am at the end of the hall with chai, waiting for the sun to rise. I just wrote to R about one of the wonders of sunrise being the awareness of the turning of the Earth. To know with such wonder that I am beholding the handiwork…

Real is Real is Real (Sorry, Gertrude…)

It’s a pansy, not a rose…ergo the apologies to Gertrude Stein who pointed out that a rose is a rose is a rose… But the “equality of real” was something from a conversation yesterday when noting with a friend that no one thing taken in by the senses is any more ‘real’ than any other…

Paris-Pace

A simple thought this Saturday… The other day I met a friend to walk back over toward her house to get a coffee/nibble at a local bakery I’d never tried. I remarked that it took far less time to walk there than I had thought it would. She laughed and said “Well, you are with…

New out of Nothing and Everything

Creating something new out of nothing and everything… I recently heard a friend preach and she used this line to refer to God’s work of shaping new from what already is… I heard it, wrote it down immediately, and then felt a niggle of familiarity once the words settled… A new way of saying it,…

All that and Ice Cream to Boot

There are currently two guests staying with the community—one from Uganda and one from Japan. We had finished dinner, just the three of us, and I suggested a walk to get ice cream at a popular local place called the Dairy Bar. It is known for its interesting flavors and long lines in the summer….

Resonance

From the journal… In the Public Gardens on a bench by the dahlias. Lunch is wrapped in a cloth napkin in my bag, tucked in among crosswords, a novel, and assorted writing implements. This journal was in there, but is now flopped open on my thigh. Somewhere I am remembering that the column width of…

At Ease with Belonging…a Poem

At a recent gathering I attended, multiple people mentioned that they were seeing new facets of me, new aspects of who I was. I found this fascinating because at this gathering, I was, in part, doing what I do regularly…I was writing, helping the group pray… The people there had read and prayed with my…