Singing Along the Journey

Barbara Brown Taylor

I keep trying…

I'm still out here, each morning. I'm out here, walking the sidewalks of Capitol Hill, just as I have been since the day the world went pear-shaped with the news of COVID. But unlike those early days, I now walk well before sunrise. And the funny thing is, I like it. I like walking in the dark. There is something magical about walking across the border between night and day. There is something magical about feeling the transformation from cool night breeze to the stillness that often comes with the warmth of the sun. And I can almost forget that I am literally in the center of one of the…
Read More

Dark peace by the light of the moon…

For most of the month of August, my day has begun before sunrise. I haven’t made this choice because of scheduling requirements or even a desire to walk so early. I have made this choice because the only way to spend substantial time moving outside these weeks has been to do it as early or as late as possible. And I am not an evening person, not in the slightest. The world is different, in those moments before the sun is visible over the horizon (or, in my case, over the buildings that block the horizon view). Even though I know that the day ahead will test my ability to…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I keep trying…

I'm still out here, each morning. I'm out here, walking the sidewalks of Capitol Hill, just as I have been since the day the world went pear-shaped with the news of COVID. But unlike those early days, I now walk well before sunrise. And the funny thing is, I like it. I like walking in the dark. There is something magical about walking across the border between night and day. There is something magical about feeling the transformation from cool night breeze to the stillness that often comes with the warmth of the sun. And I can almost forget that I am literally in the center of one of the…
Read More

Dark peace by the light of the moon…

For most of the month of August, my day has begun before sunrise. I haven’t made this choice because of scheduling requirements or even a desire to walk so early. I have made this choice because the only way to spend substantial time moving outside these weeks has been to do it as early or as late as possible. And I am not an evening person, not in the slightest. The world is different, in those moments before the sun is visible over the horizon (or, in my case, over the buildings that block the horizon view). Even though I know that the day ahead will test my ability to…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I keep trying…

I'm still out here, each morning. I'm out here, walking the sidewalks of Capitol Hill, just as I have been since the day the world went pear-shaped with the news of COVID. But unlike those early days, I now walk well before sunrise. And the funny thing is, I like it. I like walking in the dark. There is something magical about walking across the border between night and day. There is something magical about feeling the transformation from cool night breeze to the stillness that often comes with the warmth of the sun. And I can almost forget that I am literally in the center of one of the…
Read More

Dark peace by the light of the moon…

For most of the month of August, my day has begun before sunrise. I haven’t made this choice because of scheduling requirements or even a desire to walk so early. I have made this choice because the only way to spend substantial time moving outside these weeks has been to do it as early or as late as possible. And I am not an evening person, not in the slightest. The world is different, in those moments before the sun is visible over the horizon (or, in my case, over the buildings that block the horizon view). Even though I know that the day ahead will test my ability to…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I keep trying…

I'm still out here, each morning. I'm out here, walking the sidewalks of Capitol Hill, just as I have been since the day the world went pear-shaped with the news of COVID. But unlike those early days, I now walk well before sunrise. And the funny thing is, I like it. I like walking in the dark. There is something magical about walking across the border between night and day. There is something magical about feeling the transformation from cool night breeze to the stillness that often comes with the warmth of the sun. And I can almost forget that I am literally in the center of one of the…
Read More

Dark peace by the light of the moon…

For most of the month of August, my day has begun before sunrise. I haven’t made this choice because of scheduling requirements or even a desire to walk so early. I have made this choice because the only way to spend substantial time moving outside these weeks has been to do it as early or as late as possible. And I am not an evening person, not in the slightest. The world is different, in those moments before the sun is visible over the horizon (or, in my case, over the buildings that block the horizon view). Even though I know that the day ahead will test my ability to…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I keep trying…

I'm still out here, each morning. I'm out here, walking the sidewalks of Capitol Hill, just as I have been since the day the world went pear-shaped with the news of COVID. But unlike those early days, I now walk well before sunrise. And the funny thing is, I like it. I like walking in the dark. There is something magical about walking across the border between night and day. There is something magical about feeling the transformation from cool night breeze to the stillness that often comes with the warmth of the sun. And I can almost forget that I am literally in the center of one of the…
Read More

Dark peace by the light of the moon…

For most of the month of August, my day has begun before sunrise. I haven’t made this choice because of scheduling requirements or even a desire to walk so early. I have made this choice because the only way to spend substantial time moving outside these weeks has been to do it as early or as late as possible. And I am not an evening person, not in the slightest. The world is different, in those moments before the sun is visible over the horizon (or, in my case, over the buildings that block the horizon view). Even though I know that the day ahead will test my ability to…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More