The Hammer Times

  • Coast to Coast – Day 1

    Portland to Meridian, Idaho Unexpected – One rest stop had a pen for horses in addition to the expected area for dogs. Beautiful – Snow capped mountains; Columbia River shimmering in the sunlight Ziggy – Read more

  • The Portland Years

    Part 2: Dedicated to Friends of the Body Have you ever started a small project, that grew into a bigger project, and after a while it seemed like the project became your life? That’s how energy or body work started for me, with a hoped for quick fix for anxiety morphing into a seven year Read more

  • The Fog of Grief

    grief rolls in like northwest winter fog cold, damp, penetrating, accompanied by the worst sort of body aches a ratcheting, vice-grip joint pain Read more

  • The Onion, Spiral Staircase and Ice Hockey

    In every inward journey there are repeating themes. Themes like family of origin relationships, relationships with partner or spouse, and past trauma, with either a little “t” or a capital “T.” Because these big themes of life are both universal and foundational to our experience, we often need to work through them more than once. Read more

  • The Portland Years

    Part One I lost my faith in God in my twenties, aware at the time that it was slipping away, but helpless to do anything to stop it. When I sought support from a range of pastors, they all said the same thing. The fact that I was talking to them about losing my faith Read more

  • Team Daffodil – Yes, yes, yes we do! We’ve got spirit, how ‘bout you?!

    Dare to bloom, even when conditions aren’t optimal. Arrive early as a harbinger of hope. Bring your friends with you; they are essential. Focus on the journey, not the conditions. Once you’ve taken the risk, don’t retreat. Disregard the naysayers, for the risk is always worth it. Read more

  • Kintsugi – Beautiful Repair

    Recently a friend and I played with the idea of Kintsugi —the Japanese practice of mending broken pottery with gold, as a radical metaphor for mending our own broken shards. Our human tendency is to discard or completely bury the broken parts of ourselves. We can’t imagine that they might be of any value, let Read more

  • Hymnody & Overcoming My Fear of Heights

    In a recent sermon, our pastor described how he overcame his fear of heights while working as a new camp counselor. He drew his courage from the value he placed on the counselor-camper relationship, knowing that he needed to conquer his fear so they could conquer theirs. I overcame my fear of heights in a Read more

  • Observation

    Have you noticed that many laundry hampers are not washable? Read more

  • The Bovina Center Chronicles – A Town the Map Forgot

    Bovina Center, NY, the town where I lived from ages eight to fifteen, is too small for most maps. On the rare occasion it did appear, our speck of a dot looked more like the cartographer had simply rested her pencil on our town for a moment. Established in 1820 by Scottish Presbyterians, the village Read more