Laurie Klein, Scribe

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Remembering: Being Present to the Past

by Laurie Klein 8 Chiming In

Remembering Mama

Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.
—George Eliot

Dear readers, our daughter and soon-to-be-formally adopted grandbaby, Keira, are feeling their way forward, day by day. And sometimes, when the baby’s drug withdrawal symptoms worsen, hour by hour. Thank you for your ongoing prayers. (Catch up on our miracle here.)


Remembering means
being fully present—to the past

Anyone else with a complex parental relationship?

I’ve been questioning my dry-eyed, ongoing numbness over my mother’s death, a few years ago.

Weeping neither proves nor validates one’s depth of love or loss: I learned this at “Grief Share,” a 12-week class for the bereaved.

A relief, yes.

Still, I needed more. [Read more…]

Filed Under: BiblioDiva Tagged With: anger, dementia, mother, rememering, run away September 17, 2016

Windfall: Urgent, Instant, Demanding Joy

by Laurie Klein 24 Chiming In

Windfall —”an unexpected gain” — who wouldn’t want one?

Oh, have I got a story for you, a tale worth a roomful of candles and cake . . . windfall of candles

S.O.S.

One week ago the local adoption agency phoned our eldest daughter, mother to our 16-month-old grandson. The agency’s request was urgent, the need, dire.

A struggling newborn in the Deaconess Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) needed someone to help her learn to eat. Hopefully, to thrive. Overworked nurses wanted someone calm and caring to hold one tiny girl, coax her into life. Would our daughter come?

She and her husband weighed the risks. There were many.

Still, she went. Stepped right into miraculous, heart-wrenching chaos for five days. We met our newest little one in NICU that first evening. Ashen and frail, with an awkward feeding port in her skull and cords snaking off to various monitors, she looked like a small electric doll. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: adoption, love, Risk, unexpected, windfall, wonder, yes August 30, 2016

Space: Creativity’s New Frontier?

by Laurie Klein 26 Chiming In

Space

Day 1: I wake to the heady pine scent of Christmas—the morning I’ve dreaded (backstory here).

Our trees are falling. Heartwood splinters like gunfire.

Out in the air-conditioned Forestry Bobcat with its whiz-bang red Masticator, the contractor we hired knocks over bug-ridden pines. Each living, still-photosynthesizing tree explodes. Detritus sprays 300 feet.

space is made

Goodbye, fairy-tale forest. Farewell, shadowy habitat for owls, deer, small furry critters. Our once-magical backyard seems doomed.

Our contractor follows another man wielding his chainsaw against the larger victims of pine bark beetles.

forest space made by chainsaw

Their plan seems haphazard, the destruction acute.

"Timber-r-r-r-rr-!"

I can hardly bear the new emptiness.

Absence hurts. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: absence, curate, edit, space August 9, 2016

Summer Is Here, Are You?

by Laurie Klein 10 Chiming In

summer getaway carThis post is for you if:

“Summer” keeps eluding your out-stretched hands

Your last outdoor nap occurred 10 years ago

Weeds (or weedy thoughts) keep overtaking your yard (or mind)

You’re avoiding the beach because of those extra pounds

The kids are bored and driving you crazy

You’re feeling heartsick over current events and looming elections


Jesus, they say you walked this sorry, glorious planet.

They say you experienced all the ways we are beset, worn out, and tempted to run.

They say you were perfect. In every way.


I just have to ask:

Was your last summer among us a blur?

Did you doze in the shade anyway—at least once—no apologies?

Not to be disrespectful, but . . . did you and the 12 ever skinny-dip? No excuses, no shame?

Did you tend a bonfire and greet the stars by name?

Bet you invented games with kids . . . all ages.

Entrusted every woe and injustice to God’s care, as you still do.


When imagination fails, be our inspiration.

When faith shifts and threatens to crack, be our sure foundation.

When we long to bolt, be our strength.

summer regrets

We have summer regrets:

for refusing to rest

for forgetting to honor and nurture our bodies

for hosting fear in our mental guest room

for avoiding annoying tasks and people

for hardening ourselves against too much bad news

for postponing joy

 summer plane

We have summer hopes:

for occasional breaks
and adventures
and good books

for family unity, and personal freedom

for health and fitness

for peace in our world

for breakthroughs in national politics


We pledge to travel lightly today.

We pledge to rest more often, and play more often, no matter how briefly. No guilt. No shame.

We pledge to learn How to Be Here.


Taste and see that the Lord is good:
blessed is the [one] that trusts in him.
—Psalm 34:8

Laurie Klein, Scribe

Filed Under: Springboards Tagged With: be here, hopes, regrets, savor, summer July 25, 2016

Last-minute Beans, Lasting Truth

by Laurie Klein 6 Chiming In

Hill of Beans

Yesterday’s Beans

Beans headlined my last-minute grocery list.

Elbows flared, an older man blocked my way. His stance was wide, his reach, long. He radiated ownership, as if these were his beans, and he examined each one, stem to tail.

I needed two handfuls, pronto.

Ragged shorts, crumpled canvas hat, one tube sock at half-mast—he didn’t look like a chef. Those focused hands might have belonged to an eccentric composer seeking the lost chord: the epitome of crunch, sweetness, savor. Shine.

I headed for Dairy, impatient yet curious. Was Mr. Persnickety entertaining a V.I.P.? Perhaps he was painting a still life, in oils, and he needed fresh props.

When I circled back, The Green Bean Guy was gone. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: beans, delight, haste, kingdom, savor July 11, 2016

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House of 49 Doors: Entries in a Life

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Where the Sky Opens, a Partial Cosmography
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