Seth Haines's Blog, page 35

To My Son, During the Superbowl

To My Son, During the Superbowl My son stretched across the couch, was pulled into the spectacle of this year’s feats of strength by men, women—products. I know some by name, persona, statistics, not by handshakes, conversations, bedrooms. They are white gold, chocolate, or coffee consumed for a season, another season, until the shells of heroes are nothing more than the peanut skins of trivia. I try to explain ownership, or power, the way it masquerade as competition, progress, prowess,...

Weekend Review: Paper Cuts and Sonnets

Amber is away doing girl things at a girl conference is a city packed with girls. I’m sure there are tears, and tea, tremulous prayers being lifted to heaven in that city that shall not be named, but in this neck of the woods, the four boys and I are all about pizza, root beer, and bodily-function jokes. At the end of the day, I’m still a boy.

We have a great big day planned, one including shooting hoops and cleaning out the mini-van. (At the end of the day, I’m still a boy, that’s married to...

Recovery Room: From Gumption to Inner-Sobriety

Over the last year, I’ve received my fair share of me-too emails, emails in which the writer has reached out to say, “you’ve wrestled with addiction? Me too.” These emails take various shapes and forms–advice from someone ten years ahead of me on this recovery journey, confessions from otheraddicts on the other side of the screen. This is the beauty of confession–it both invites the wisdom and grace of age, and encouragesthe lame to take their own first step.

Yesterday, I received an email fr...

Tuesday Reflections: The Gift of Pain

Over the next couple of months, I’m offeringTuesday reflections on pain, healing, and recovery. I hope you’ll join the community of folks walking this road together.

(To keep up with this reflection series, signup for blog updates in the maroon box in the left sidebar.)

*****

“What if pain, what if the thing parents try the hardest to protect their children from, was the thing your child needed most?” ~Good Morning America, July 5, 2012

Ashlyn Blocker came into this world with the pushing pai...

Weekend Review: Opdiggy and the Amazing Broadway Rat

It’s been a good week in these parts. I snuck a mini-vacation withAmber (what a gem I’ve married) sans kids, which is to say there were a few days of much-needed quiet. We walked on a beach, ate a few good meals with a few far-away friends, talked, and unwound. I shopped for sneakers–something I never feel the freedom to do–drove a coastal highway, and ate a faux-schmancy French meal in an airport. We laughed on occasion, annoyed each other on occasion, held hands on occasion.

There’s nothing...

The Sixth Love Language (Hint: It’s Literary)

In some circles, there’s a lot of talk about the five love languages–gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and physical touch (ahem).Drawing from the work ofauthor Gary Chapman, folks posit that each person experiences love through one of thesefive “languages.” But I have news for the Chapmanites: there’s a key love language missing, a sixth love language–books.

There’s nothing that says love quite like a good book. I suppose the converse is also true–there’s nothing tha...

Tuesday Reflections: Who Knows How to Listen?

Over the next couple of months, I’m offeringTuesday reflections on pain, healing, and recovery. I hope you’ll join the community of folks walking this road together.

(To keep up with this reflection series, signup for blog updates in the maroon box in the left sidebar.)

1.

This is what it means to face the pain, and if you were to ask me how I feel in the quickening moments, I’d tell you that I feel abandoned, empty, sick.

There are hollow prayers I’ve considered not worth uttering. Today, I...

Weekend Review: Li’l Donald, Essentialism, and the Need for Me Too

We’ve survived another week. Ain’t it grand?

Amber and I are packing our bags, hopping a plane to [insert undisclosed destination]sanskids. We’ve not been alone together in what seems like years, and I’m looking forward to this little retreat.

The kids? Don’t worry. We’re leaving bologna in the fridge, and have instructed them to make sure to go to bed by 10:00 every night. They’ll be fine.

How about you? Do you have some big plans on the weekend horizon? Before you get to them, do you need a...

God Rides a Star Destroyer

On a bimonthly basis, I send a Tiny Letter newsletter to my subscribers. The Tiny Letter is a personal, and more focused attempt to bring you reflections and writing prompts. In the most recent edition, I’m exploringfinding God in all things, which is not to say finding God in the everyday or the mundane. (It’s a fine distinction but one worth teasing out.)

Diana Trautwein readmy latestTiny Letter and wrote,

In the last few of those letters, he has begun to do what he once did for a small gro...

Tuesday Reflections: Obedience to Pain

Over the next couple of months, I’m offeringTuesday reflections on pain, healing, and recovery. I hope you’ll join the community of folks walking this road together.

(To keep up with this reflection series, signup for blog updates in the maroon box in the left sidebar.)

***

This is what it means to face the pain, and if you were to ask me how I feel in the quickening moments, I’d tell you that I feel abandoned, empty, sick.

~Coming Clean (October 16)

This is the fact of life: everybody hurts...