The Fshbwl

The Hidden Kingdom

"How could a loving God allow so much suffering?" It's a common question from people who look at what's happening in the world around us and can't help but wonder, "Where's God in all of this?"

Catching the Present

When Annie Dillard is looking for some present tense, she wants to be present in the moment, to experience all that the created world has to offer. She wants to be able to see, hear, taste, smell, and thrill at all her mind can sense and her spirit can take in. Whether it is prowling for praying mantis egg cases in January cold, stalking the coy coot or mysterious muskrats in silence along the creek bank, or being startled into awe at an explosion of starlings in flight from a cedar lit by the afternoon amber sun, for her, these still moments—“a free gift from the universe” (16)—are to be experienced in quiet, waiting, and longing.

Sick of Solitude

Illness isolates. Sickness imposes solitude. When sickness strikes, when illness infects, the afflicted becomes alone.

The solitude of sickness is not the sought-after solitude of a sick-day home from school or work. It is not the temporary reprieve from the worries of the world due to a small sickness, a common cold.