Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez's Blog, page 7
January 31, 2022
My Children Leave Me in January
Snow and IceMy children leave me in January when winter sky covers the fields. Dropped temperatures bundle us into sluggish selves. Frosted windows watch as the world whispers in thickened silence.
My children leave me in January never following the predetermined course of others their age. Not August or September when many return to school. While recent graduates load trailers traveling toward new adventures. And gap year’s youth stuff large backpacks with necessities for discovering t...
January 13, 2022
JANUARY NEWSLETTER 2022
ON THE BOOKSHELF
WELCOMEWelcome to my inaugural newsletter. Why a newsletter? Well honestly the idea began at the advice of every marketing person in the publishing industry. Somehow newsletters boost book sales. Believe me, I’m not producing a newsletter because I want to contribute to the clutter in your inbox. So yes, I am a bit sceptical. But honestly I’m also enjoying what began as yet another task on my to do list! So here it is, my first newsletter as an author. If you continue r...
January 4, 2022
A Nest Between
Weave with precious threads rounded walls,Unraveled from various fabrics,Wedding gown, suits, maternity clothes, barongs,Neckties, favorite shirts, ripped blue jeans, funeral attire. Fill woven cup with soft flannel,Cut from well-washed baby blankets and elders' crocheted throws,Topped with wooly lambskin meant for lining Swedish baby buggies,Nestling in other comforts left-over from past years,Favorite plush toys missing ears, eyes,Bird feather fluff found on family hikes,Pieces ...
October 25, 2021
To Everything There is a Season
Week after week of therapy sessions. Each hour supporting healing through writing. Page after page revealing in words both pain and joy, sorrow and solace. All the while surrounded by loving writing professionals delivering suggestions with more care than critique. Revision after revision after revision accumulating into hundreds of rewrites leading to now. Filling my heart with a cascade of emotions.
With gratitude to God and to all the healers in this splintered world of ours, I officially ...
September 30, 2021
Litany of Mercy for the Ceasing and Healing of Domestic Violence
A litany is a series of prayer requests to God typically made by a worship leader. These requests are called petitions. The people gathered for worship respond to the offered petitions with a repeated refrain. In this litany the refrain is the ancient liturgical prayer Kyrie eleison. This litany is offered as we begin October and Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Women in posture of pain and protection.The Leader begins.
We pray to you, oh God,
LORD, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lor...
August 13, 2021
August Counting
Every year on this day when families return from vacation full of just made memories, begin readying for the school year ahead, every year at this time I count the dead. Because right about now, five years ago, we came home from vacation without one of us forever. And there was no getting ready for the start of school for any of us. There was only a funeral to plan, a death to make sense of, and life to figure out. So today I count and if possible name the dead ones. Those who in the past tw...
July 13, 2021
STUFF
Last week I dropped off another load of stuff. Made a donation of sorts to an organization assisting people in need. My stuff helps make their programs happen. I’ve been doing this kind off-loading a lot lately as I forage through item after item in our home looking to toss, keep, or give away.
Of course each item is infused with memories. As I throw out a broken Tonka truck I hear the traffic sounds my young sons once made years ago. As I load up a box with books I remember my beloved c...
June 5, 2021
OUT
Psalm 130
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in God’s word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
...
March 24, 2021
BR O KEN
“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief,
my soul and body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away. I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me; I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.” Psalm 31:9-12 NRSV
March 11, 2021
Sitting Lonely, One Year Later
One year ago I wrote this post. At the beginning. Of the unknown. Now one year later the pandemic continues to impact us. Layered upon what has already occured.
With measured step we attempt move out into the world. Yet as some return to what once was, others cannot not because of the lingering after effects of Covid-19 in their bodies. As some plan gatherings, others mourn the loss of those they once gathered with. As some return to the workplace, some have no workplace to return to...
