Many thanks to RM Media for providing this video opportunity to "think out loud" about reading and writing as spiritual practices and about my new book, Kat's Dreams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVM5oYVEnYA read more about kat's dreams Video Transcript: Smith: For me, writing is a way of paying attention, which is a form of reverence. I try to... Continue Reading →
Field
How much dirt does it take to make a field? The container garden on my balcony held several pots of dirt. When the pandemic came and constricted our lives in so many ways, that small apartment became the scope of my days. This was extended only a little by bike rides on a nearby trail,... Continue Reading →
Our Imperfect Saints
Autumn makes me think of my grandmother’s pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies. She’d cover them in orange buttercream frosting and then decorate the tops with Jack-o’-lantern faces using a rich cocoa icing. I loved those cookies. My grandmother sold them for 35 cents apiece at the local pumpkin festival, and they sold out every year. My grandmother... Continue Reading →
Remembering Hope
All winter I watched a neighbor’s deck lights from my back window as they glowed against the grey and cold. The string of lights stretched between tree branches above the wooden deck. Morning and evening, I watched those lights create a small space of warmth against the dark woods beyond. I suppose I needed that... Continue Reading →
What God Does with Dust
It layered itself like a fuzzy film along baseboards I didn’t often clean. It gathered on books I hadn’t opened in years. Dust marked what I liked to forget. “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” the clergy would recite on Ash Wednesday in the church of my childhood. I remember... Continue Reading →
On Mountain Biking and Trying Again
I remember lying on my back, looking up through tree branches. Leaves crunched under me, and my new mountain bike lay on top of me. It was not a promising beginning. In fact, it was a broken rib. Painful as the injury felt, I actually found it a bit comforting. This fracture gave me a... Continue Reading →
