From Letters from the Mountain by Ben Palpant
Category: Reflective
Contemplative and reflective posts, musings, and perhaps (sometimes) poetry.
Two Thousand Years in Rehearsal
A high school stage play is more polished than the service we have been rehearsing since the year one. In 2000 years, we have not worked out the kinks. We positively glorify them. Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God is so mighty he can stifle his own laughter. Week after week, […]
Lent – A Tithe of Your Time
In many cultures there is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of each year’s income to some holy use. For Christians, to observe the forty days of Lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year’s days. After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off […]
To Follow the Star – A Christmas Reflection
My kids and I were heading home from school. I was driving as they sat in the back seat, telling me about their day. Thanksgiving still approached, but the radio station we often listen to had already begun to play Christmas songs. In fact, it played only Christmas songs. I was humming along with one […]
12 Things to be Thankful For
It is Thanksgiving day! I have so many things to be thankful for and take far too much for granted. So today, I’m posting 12 things to be grateful for. 1. I’m thankful for butterflies. While sitting here, there are butterfly wind chimes hanging above me, and I have a butterfly design on a folder […]
No Such Thing As a Small Decision
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle You’re standing in the check-out line and see the headline of a magazine. It’s a favorite actor of yours and he’s broken up with yet another girlfriend. You pick it up, eager to know the details of his life. […]
Waiting for Autumn
Not a breath of life teases the trees. They perch still and green as the day they first budded. I wonder, if I could will them to autumn, would I? Usher in the golden, the crimson, the vibrant hues of transforming trees? Or leave it to nature’s touch … at times harsh; at others, little […]
These Spaces in Between
Airports are non-places. In-between places. You’re not really here but not really there yet. You’ve said goodbye and haven’t yet said hello. At an airport, you’re not quite in the air but not exactly on the ground. Usually, in airports we’re in too much of a hurry to contemplate the liminality of such spaces. It’s […]
The Importance of Being Present as a Writer
The life of a writer seems almost extravagant at times. I don’t mean that I sleep in every morning, wake up only when I feel like it, then walk or drive around in search of inspiration for writing. I don’t spend hours sitting outside an overly expensive coffee shop sipping a mocha latte and writing […]
Reasons Why A Writer Writes
Why do I write? I read a quote some time ago that has stuck somewhere in my mind or heart, or perhaps both. It went something like this: “The act of writing is the act of discovering what you believe.” So much has been said of writing. Probably even more has been written about writing. […]
Bonita Jewel 