Creators & Cultivators: posts from the archives
![Into your hands I commit my spirit: Erin Ware [Retrieve Lament 2019]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5700118059827e84008212d2/1555690764920-AA2391XSMH4INE1G8J9V/Holy+Week.Erin+Ware7.jpg)
I kid you not, there was a time, not long before all of this happened, that I thought that “the worst thing that could happen” would be my car breaking down, because I was very financially vulnerable. Then, almost like a joke, my car was stolen, and I couldn’t replace it. (Spoiler alert: I got through it.) The truth is, for most of my life, losing my mom would have been the worst thing that I could imagine—and then that happened too. I don’t want to think about what my “worst thing” would be now. All I know is, through it all, I have come to realize that there is life after death in more ways than one.
![It is finished: Marcie Walker [Retrieve Lament 2019]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5700118059827e84008212d2/1555639472958-NB4XIPONZ23E7TMV7725/icon_Greta+Les%CC%81ko+.jpg){kind=icon}
When my mother was sentenced to serve 8-25 years in prison on the charge of involuntary manslaughter, we all said, “This is it,” which in our hearts translated to, “So, this is how it all ends.” She was nearly 60 and all of us, her children, were grown but still asking ourselves,”What kind of woman is this? Troubles ride on the wind and land at her feet.”
Creators & Cultivators: Recommended Reading
“So do you want to make culture? Find a community, a small group who can lovingly fuel your dreams and puncture your illusions. Find friends and form a family who are willing to see grace at work in one another’s lives, who can discern together which gifts and which crosses each has been called to bear. Find people who have a holy respect for power and a holy willingness to spend their power alongside the powerless. Find some partners in the wild and wonderful world beyond church doors. And then, together, make something of the world.”