Tag: Spirituality

Family, Life, Nature, Spirituality1 Comment

Hiking Like Elijah

brent taylor

Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “I did not ask for success; I asked for wonder.” Wonder is one of the reasons I stare at constellations, marvel at newborn babes, and hike with my son. We have hiked many miles over the years. Waterfall near Ithaca, NY The best part of hiking has always been wondering what’s around the next boulder or switch back. Just ahead is a stream, beyond that a bluff, a bear smells us, then we see the bear and we stare at one another with no deferential etiquette, just unabated staring bear to man and man to bear. Then … Continue reading Hiking Like Elijah

Family, Life5 Comments

Butch, Sundance, and Jimmy

brent taylor

Yesterday, sitting in my recliner on a Sunday afternoon, half-awake, my cell phone rang. It was Jimmy. I knew he had just been released from OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City. I jumped from my chair and ran outside because my phone has lousy reception inside the house. I sat down on the diving board next to the pool and remembered another pool, bigger and typically filled with screaming kids, the pool where I was baptized, at Green Valley Bible Camp near Rogers, Arkansas on a hot July day in 1972. Jimmy and I talked like the old friends we … Continue reading Butch, Sundance, and Jimmy

Memoir, Spirituality5 Comments

Discovering the Holy Among the Profane in Fifteen Minutes

brent taylor

I grew up in a home that severely limited my creative outlet of language…I wasn’t allowed to curse, nor was I given the freedom to vent with words that hinted of the real four-letter curse words, the baby curse words like heck and shoot and darn. These were deemed unpolished and tainted by the very notion of adjacency, they contained at least two of the evil four letters. I don’t remember many lectures from Mom who was the language gatekeeper, but there was instilled in our vocabulary a governor which filtered the borderline words readily when Mom was in the … Continue reading Discovering the Holy Among the Profane in Fifteen Minutes

Arts & Culture, Children, Family, Spirituality, YouthLeave a comment

Flashes of Wonder

brent taylor

If I wrote like my wife talks, I’d write narrative like a kid writing home from summer camp, “I had oatmeal for breakfast and we played softball and I outran all the boys in a foot race and we had hamburgers for dinner…” But, I write like a Red Bull-drinking cat on a hot tin roof, leaping from topic to topic not waiting to interrupt myself if new sentences emerge from side streets like kids chasing the siren song of the ice cream truck. Karen and I had such a good weekend that writing of it demands a linear narrative, … Continue reading Flashes of Wonder

Family, Life, SpiritualityLeave a comment

Megan’s Hands

brent taylor

My daughter Jenna and I have a special hand shake thing which is difficult to describe but something that we’ve done since she was very young. It’s our secret and I can’t entirely divulge how it works, just that’s it’s our special hand to hand bond that she know’s me and I know her and that we love one another. I thought about how blessed I am to have this bond of touch with Jenna as I read what Mike Cope wrote about his daughter, Megan, and I thought of how our hands are a ministry to others. Karen and … Continue reading Megan’s Hands

Spirituality7 Comments

No Man is an Island

brent taylor

I wandered over to the headstone of my Grandpa Jesse Davis after Aunt Becky’s graveside service and while standing to the side of his bones (Grandma Mildred told me to not step on folks in the graveyard…it’s not respectful), I pondered his death. Born in 1901…died 1969. I commented to my contemporary fifty-something cousins, I have fifteen years left. Or forty-six years if my life-span tracks closer to Grandma Davis lying beside Jesse. Contingent upon the whirling mix of genetic longevity piped down to me through the maternal tree trunk along with how much ice cream I eat. That sober … Continue reading No Man is an Island

Children, Family, Life, Spirituality18 Comments

Becky Ran Home Today

brent taylor

Becky Marie Davis ran home today. The last time she ran was 1954. But today, her legs were unbound, her lungs filled with fresh air, her heart soaked in heavens glory. As I’ve watched the graceful withering of my Aunt Becky’s physical nature I’ve observed the astounding levity of her soul. One can easily suggest that life treated her unfairly. She would be the last to say so. Coming home from the hospital this exchange occurred between her and the ambulance attendant. “Are you going home?” Never one to mince words, Becky answered: “I’m going home to wait on the … Continue reading Becky Ran Home Today