Before 9am this morning, I was praying loudly, and with much feeling.
screaming out loud
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Category Archives: relationships
anxiety attacks and the fallacy of linear progression
Exactly a year ago, up here in the mountains, I fell upon reading Katharine Welby’s blog, and began to admit to myself that I wasn’t “just blue” or “tired” or “having a tough week”–I was depressed.
Katharine Welby-Roberts had been suffering anxiety and depression for many years, and wrote with such clarity and compassion that I was both horrified (at how much I identified with her experiences) and comforted (there was actually something wrong, but it was something at least somewhat treatable which I was suffering, and which millions of others suffered too).
In the ensuing year, as has been cataloged in this very space, I’ve started medication, sought healing through less work and more prayer and yoga, and continue to pursue honesty along the path I trod.
So, a year out, I had my first anxiety attack in several weeks just yesterday. Continue reading
“So, is it over now?”
Over the summer, my husband and I trekked back to our homeland–the upper Midwest. It was right on the heels of the flag removal in our downtown, and so after covering the weather (requisite subject matter for any conversation in the Midwest), we were sometimes asked, a little awkwardly, “So that racism in the South–it’s over now, right?”
As if there was a stomach bug traveling around and the taking down of one sheet of sewn fabric had finally quashed it once and for all. Continue reading
Minnesota Nice: a snapshot of upper-Midwestern life
Encountering this dog waiting very politely for her owner, patrons entering the establishment say (audibly!), “Excuse me,” as they gently open the door to access their morning joe.
There are hipsters here (especially around the universities), but they don’t have the typical ‘tude that seems ubiquitous of handlebar mustaches and ironic flannel; they can’t help but smile and joke along with customers and fellow patrons.
Babies abound at the corner coffeeshop, lashed to parents, dashing across floors, hanging on doorknobs. Tweens braid each other’s (naturally) platinum tresses.
People live longer up here than other places and do I think it has something to do with the strong and unassuming sense of comunal life? You betcha.
recent reading
(1) “I think it’s crazy that we don’t talk more about what happens AFTER the big day. ”
I completely agree! More relationship wisdom
Our frenzy over weddings distracts us from the main event: the marriage (that is, the relationship to be cemented over the next several decades). Just like we allow urgent things all the time (in our work, in our bodies, in our inboxes) to distract us from the important things (our immediate hunger sends us to Chick-Fil-A, while a salad or sandwich from home would be better long-term for both our waistlines & our pocketbooks), weddings can distract us from the long-term, good, & hard work of a firm foundation for a life-long marriage. This culture is set up to tear people and relationships apart; even the firmest-ly-founded marriage will suffer earthquakes–the least we can do is prepare as much as possible.
(2) “…they’re like brothers here,” [Fr. Charles] Wallace said. “The boys look out for one another. They counsel one another and console each other.” This quotation about the St. Thomas choir school, captured in an interview with The Living Church this week reminded me of our own version at Trinity Cathedral in Columbia–shown above.
Like the article and the video show, these choir programs are about singing, but on a much more foundational level for both groups of students they’re about learning who God is and how to recognize God in a journey with companions–their fellow students. This makes a family; they enjoy deep relationships forged from common work and shared struggle.
hope of things not seen 