Marilyn R. Gardner's Blog, page 33
February 15, 2018
A Fog of Tragedy
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There is a fog over the Charles River. While the sun is trying to burn through the mist, the fog is heavy and solid.
I wonder if this is what it is like for those families affected by another school shooting. The fog of disbelief and anger so heavy; the gut-deep sadness and nausea overwhelming. Everything a blur of loss and tragedy.
Where is the sun in that fog?
While most of the country was focusing on chocolate, roses, and chalk hearts with stupid sayings, a community was facing a nightmar...
February 14, 2018
A Valentine’s Day Warning: Don’t Let Corporate America Dictate What Love Is
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I have mixed feelings about the day, but there’s one thing I know. It is far too easy to let corporate America dictate what love is to the eager masses. For weeks we have not been able to escape glossy images and advertisements about true love and how it’s best expressed through material things. From jewelry to roses, we are subject to a false understanding of love and relationships.
So here are some basic dos and don’ts about t...
February 13, 2018
No Better Place Than This…
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“Third culture kids, immigrants, refugees, foreigners.”
“We find each other in unlikely spaces. In the shared experience of other, we find belonging and rest, whether in a short ride to an airport or a long-distance phone conversation. These moments of connection seem to come at the right time, sustaining us until the next encounter, preventing us from falling into an abyss of self-pity and isolation.” (p. 181 of Between Worlds: Essays on Culture and Belonging)
I got together with a fellow i...
February 12, 2018
How Do You Draw Mercy?
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If you were asked to draw a picture of mercy what would you draw? How would you take the tools of pencil and paper and use them to craft a concept like mercy? Would you draw an event in your life; an event where you were shown mercy and after that you would never be the same? How do you draw mercy?
But all the wickedness in the world which man may do or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped in the sea.” William Langland
Though crafted with words and not a drawing, thi...
February 11, 2018
The Last Battle as Lenten Reading
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It’s a grey, rainy Sunday. The bare trees outside accentuate the bleak weather. Slush and ice mark the sidewalk and street as if saying to me “It is, after all, February! What really do you expect?”
It may be bleak outside, but it is warm and contemplative inside. It is these days when I am most grateful for home, most grateful for the warmth of hot tea and homemade bread.
Our Lenten journey begins in a week and along with some other Lenten reading, I will begin to read The Last Battle by C....
February 7, 2018
A Life Overseas – Creating Place
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I’m at A Life Overseas today talking about creating a sense of place and home. I would love it if you joined me!
In recent years, authors have released a plethora of Christian books about home and place. From Jen Pollock Michel’s Keeping Place to Tish Oxenreider’s At Home in the World, many have a lot to say about roots, feeling at home, and stability.
I read these books with both appreciation and cynicism. I’ve lived in 28 houses on continents and can’t count the hours I’ve spent moving o...
February 1, 2018
Airports – Spaces Between Goodbye & Hello
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I love airports. Whether they are small regional airports in the middle of Pakistan or large, metropolitan mega centers of the world – I love them.
I find that airports are contemplative places. They provide a place of quiet watching in the middle of chaos; they allow me to stare out at nothing in particular without interruption; they offer me cinnamon buns, with gorgeous thick icing and gooey middles.
Today I’m sitting at JFK airport in the Jet Blue terminal. It’s a relatively quiet Thursda...
January 29, 2018
Learning Our Enemy’s Stories
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“An Irish proverb says, ‘It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.’ We can give shelter to each other by telling stories of what it means to be human, and by listening generously.”*
A few years ago I had a long conversation with a physician. The physician was ethnically Indian, but had moved to the United States, become a citizen, and had built up a primary care practice in a suburb of Boston. She came up to me after I had given a talk on the importance of culture and health...
January 27, 2018
This is 58
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It’s my birthday. One week ago I woke up in a foul mood. It was a mood rife with I hate life and life hates me. I hated who i had been; I hated who I was; I hated who I would become. I began to believe my feelings were truth.
Thankfully I have people in my life who won’t allow me to wallow. (Things like “Snap out of it, ya big baby” might have been said by family members.) Sometimes you need empathy and other times you need to “snap out of it, ya big baby!”
So today I’m here to talk about 58...
January 25, 2018
The Holy Work of Grieving
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“ Why must holy places be dark places?”*
Two days ago, my friend’s dad died. In twenty first century vernacular – she “lost” her dad. “Lost” is such a silly thing to say – like she needs to just go searching for him and she will find him; like it’s a child’s game of hide ‘n seek.
“Lois – just look for him! I’m sure you’ll find him.”
My dark humor comes through as I think about this. We humans delight in deceiving ourselves about death and loss by using words that are ambiguous and sweetly hor...
