I blogged for years. Anonymous. No name. No blog tied to my Facebook. Just words, bubbling forth. Deep from the soul. Uncoated. Untamed. Fearless. Real. And now, there is a name, Jen Avellaneda. The name I’d always hidden from. Run from. Unowned, because I never wanted to be seen or known….by anyone… Let alone the millions […]
As the poverty rate increases, the political climate tensions, and households everywhere seem whirling in uncertainty, increasingly hard times can leave people paralyzed along seas of desperation. Hearing the world’s birth pains, feeling the contractions of those struggling can overwhelm with guilt-induced deafness when faced with the reality, “We just can save them all.” As a […]
What would you ask a pastor in inland China? Well, we had the chance. Three plane flights in. Taxi ride winding around. Obstacles of people. Crunched in seat. Feeling every windy, sharp turn. Smelling fumes rising…..like the breakfast in my stomach…..from that morning. Wondering…Are we ever going to get to that church? The one we felt […]
I don’t know what came over her. Like a seed, lying dormant. Coming alive. In that in-between. Child exiting to women-hood. This morning. Not speaking. Her silence. Deafening. Like the white page I look at. Before typing. Pure. Barren. Sacred. Holy. Careful, so as not to stain a page….Waiting for answers. And why is…. Wonder always […]
The lingering fumes of my neighbors garbage. Burns alongside the road. Waking me to another morn. Another day. Oh hoping. And praying. And I sit. Knees strong on the dust before me. First thing. Like Abuela taught me. Praying to a God I don’t know. Nervously caressing the dangling emblem. Abuela gave me. Strung around my […]
I step out. Again. The deck from our condo. Overlooking the ocean. For glass doors do little to hide my fascination to the wide open. And I am drawn to it…..like a gazelle in the Savannah. A dry and thirsty one….hoping for more than a mirage in the desert. And nothing more. Separating. Water and sky. […]