Barbara Swander Miller

Category: Faith

  • Will just being just happen?

    “Do your best. Keep trying until you can do no more. Did you do your best? Then that’s all you can do.” ~Sigh~ The words do more than echo. They are the threads that stitch together my daily life. But I’m getting better at asking for help. Covid did that: Made me stress more, doubt…

  • The way will open

    Ants have been harassing me. For a week or so before our big trip west, a couple of times when I sat on the couch in the evenings, I felt a little tickle on my arm or leg. When I glanced down, I saw a big, fat black carpenter ant moseying along my bare skin.…

  • “I yam what I yam”

    But Do You Have to Be? Remember Popeye? The 1920s sailor cartoon character that Robin Williams brought to life from the comic strips and cartoons for a new audience? With a can of spinach in hand, he often delivered his trademark phrase, “I Yam What I Yam.” In the feature film, Popeye sang about his…

  • A rough night

    At the Abbey A Rough Night I heard the bells call the monks at Vigils and briefly considered rousing myself to join them. I didn’t. I prayed instead, requesting comfort for my loved ones. At Lauds, the bells clanged again. I counted, but lost track. Were they fainter, or was I exhausted from fretting and…

  • An age-old journey

    This week, I’ve been in Kentucky on a silent, unprogrammed retreat at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani. Trappist monks have lived here in silence since 1848, their charge to worship God and welcome visitors in the Benedictine tradition. Gethsemani Abbey is well known as the former home of the contemplative monk and writer…

  • What’s your favorite relic?

    A tooth from the Buddha, taken from his funeral pyre and reputedly still growing? The crown of thorns worn by Jesus during his crucifixion, housed in the cathedral of Notre Dame and miraculously saved from engulfing flames by a human chain of first responders? The head of John the Baptist, retrieved by a French crusader…

  • ‘Tis the season for silence

    Suffering from too much noise these days? Hip hop and rap versions of Christmas standards deafening you in all the department stores? Children incessantly whining and driving you nuts for this year’s must-have, the Tikduck Flying Orb Ball? Or lists of baking and shopping and decorating tasks rattling inside your head? Maybe we need a…

  • Fall Creek prayer

    Oh, wind, I hear you rustle the reddening leaves outside the open doorway. Breathe your resurrection into my aching heart that pines for solace; your peace into my unsettled soul.

  • What comes after the to-do list?

    A journey to redefine retirement How would you define “to do?”   There’s nothing particularly hard about the question. Especially if you’re a “doer“ like me. It means to get things accomplished. To stay busy. To work. Since my early days in college when I worked thirty hours a week teaching kids and adults how to…

  • Use the Current

    As I marched along the path that morning, my mind was cluttered with anxiety. The hikers’ trail that runs partially along our town’s small, winding river was surrounded by new life, but I didn’t notice.  A lot was on my mind: three teenagers at two different schools, two younger ones at the district where I…