tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64101911448344979632024-02-02T02:24:47.561-08:00Confessions of a Tattooed MennoniteThoughts on the writing life, electricity, & individuality in a "third way" world.Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-23397331741281110392014-01-14T09:24:00.002-08:002014-01-14T09:24:53.765-08:00A Ritual to Read Together: Poems in Conversation with William StaffordThe poet, teacher, and WWII Civilian Public Service worker William Stafford (1914-1993) brought me back to a healthy, compassionate writing life--and through his life example, asked me to rekindle my active membership within an historic peace church.
But what do you do when you'll never meet an important teacher in person?
One way I answered this question was to edit a poetry Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-29360928986140828872013-10-24T07:54:00.004-07:002013-10-24T08:13:39.471-07:00Shrinking Women No More? Mennonite Women in Leadership
"Shrinking Women" by Lily Meyers
Some things that continually surprise me:
1) just how many women's stories I carry within me-- stories I've been told or read from women I love/know/admire, stories that have not been told in public, that may never be told.
2) how most of my college students in their early 20s--women included--use the word "feminist" like Americans might once have Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-82198222277741377402013-10-11T06:02:00.002-07:002013-10-11T06:12:18.107-07:00Keeping the Faith: Spiritual Memoir Examines Life Of Emily DickinsonWhat writers have asked the questions that help you live out your faith practice, or perhaps a way of seeing the world? Have you used poems as psalms and prayers when you could not find words yourself?
Doing this local NPR radio interview with Emily Dickinson sage Kristin LeMay and Ohio poet Wendy McVicker was such a treat--listen to our radio conversation at the link below:
Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-48736564767541853932013-10-02T18:58:00.002-07:002013-10-02T18:58:54.036-07:00Outside the Box: Alternative Forms of "Church" and "Community"Most Sundays at my house, "church" means some quiet reflection, maybe--if I'm lucky-- some poetry writing and a long walk, then listening to a sermon via podcast while cooking. Living 80 miles from the congregation where I'm a member, I've learned to look for spiritual mentorship and community in alternative forms; I can't always take the half-day to be with my church family in person.
Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-67740830263767527192013-08-22T21:36:00.004-07:002013-11-22T09:21:16.645-08:00What the Mennonite Church Can Learn from Chelsea Manning
One of my biggest, living peacemaking heroes sits in a prison cell tonight. And she identifies as transgender. What she does not identify as is "pacifist." But her bravery (on many levels) and her story could be--and I hope will be--a powerful catalyst for many more conversations and actions within broader peace communities, including my own, Mennonite Church USA.
“As I transition intoBecca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-20231744653090346472013-07-30T09:35:00.002-07:002013-08-01T06:14:13.295-07:00Balancing the News with the Good News
"Open to Light." Bennington College, VT. Photo by Becca.
Over the last year, I've been working a lot from home (I'm an online teacher of college writing and a freelance writer/editor/tutor). This work-from-home experience has reminded me how unnerving and powerful silence can be. After breakfast, I begin to crave others' voices, music, some kind of controllable community while IBecca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-72611297082446585762013-07-15T11:35:00.002-07:002013-07-22T05:45:57.249-07:00I Am George Zimmerman: How I've Helped to Keep America "Safe"
A photo snapped by a fellow writer-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center this past fall.
One of my favorite mindfulness meditations asks me to close my eyes and envision my life as a lake. While there's commotion, change, and a city's worth of tiny movements below it, a lake's surface often appears calm, beautiful. Even safe. When we look out across this surface, we are calmed too. Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-76237015873621634862013-07-01T15:20:00.002-07:002013-07-01T15:20:26.171-07:00A Mennonite Monologue: Choosing the Story to Tell Today"Remember your audience:" One of many mantras repeated by this college teacher-writer-writing tutor. Some days I think it would save me a lot of energy just to get it tattooed on my palm.
For me, today, this mantra means choosing to focus on one story that has changed me as a member of a Mennonite Church USA congregation. This story's goal is to introduce who I am and where I am in my faith walkBecca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-25120223034013884762013-03-16T12:35:00.000-07:002013-03-21T15:03:48.811-07:00"You Must Revise Your Life"
"I think you create a good poem by revising your life . . . by living the kind of life that enables good poems to come about. It’s much more productive, much more healthful, to feel you are embarked on a writing career in which the way you live your life has something to do with the kind of poems you write . . . Your life is a trajectory. A workshop may seem, to those who take part in it, a Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-26884291313995907462013-02-15T12:23:00.001-08:002013-02-15T12:28:25.597-08:00The Next Big Thing Blog Hop
My friend & poet Jeff Tigchelaar recently asked me to participate in The Next Big Thing Blog Hop, where writers describe the projects they're working on. I’ll answer his questions below, then send them on to five more writers...and the happy dance continues. This may seem like a strange chain-letter of sorts, but ask any artist how it feels when someone (other than our spousesBecca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-47888762273699064052013-02-14T06:52:00.001-08:002013-02-14T14:10:20.342-08:00A Blank (Heart)Slate
My good friends who know how I feel about the interconnectedness of big identity issues in America today (feminism, activism, materialism, etc.) tend to cock an eyebrow at my unshakable respect for Valentine's Day. But once I tell them my story--how one of my grandmothers doesn't give gifts for Christmas but sends out letters and gifties to her grandkids for Feb 14 instead, and how female Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-13704676980285990612013-01-29T10:48:00.003-08:002013-01-30T19:14:49.880-08:00Insurance and "Wordles"This morning, I sat down with our State Farm insurance agent to go over existing policies--one of the many things on my "being grown up is surreal" list, mostly because I'd made an appointment to listen to a stranger describe all the things I was supposed to be afraid of.
As a Mennonite, this kind of meeting also makes me uncomfortable. And sad. There was a time when more Mennonites and Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-74248798860748640362013-01-14T09:20:00.001-08:002013-01-14T10:30:07.828-08:00"I Told My Soul to Sing": Hope beyond "the thing with feathers"<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-45122684877449343872012-08-10T10:07:00.001-07:002012-08-10T10:07:46.545-07:00Guest blog post for The FemoniteGuest blog post on The Femonite: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?: Mothering of a Different kind.Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-35463446493392864592012-08-08T20:09:00.002-07:002012-08-08T20:23:01.563-07:00Breathing out, breathing in: Some book-and-arts tour highlights!
A "Creative (M)othering" workshop in Kidron, Ohio (July, 2012)
The past six months sent a blur of unfortunate (and sometimes sad) events. Imagine black walnut trees falling on houses, beloved grandfathers passing away, broken ankles, cat's tails getting accidentally cut off, and cars deciding to stop working in the middle of a city highway... At one particularly low point, my husband started Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-47966172080277181912012-06-14T19:03:00.004-07:002012-06-14T19:03:48.062-07:00Feeding Community: What Undergrads Taught Me This QuarterAfter treating my body to its first Thai massage across town yesterday, I meandered home in the sunshine, passing an organic/local-vore bakery, road-side piles of garbage and old furniture left by hordes of exiting undergrads, a couple of left-over students tanning themselves in their front yard while giving their dog beer, and, just as I crested our hill, something I'd never seen before: Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-63659138238907781552012-06-12T11:43:00.002-07:002012-06-12T11:49:05.862-07:00Singing for Peace: An Interview with Wendy Chappell-Dick
Wendy Chappell-Dick
When I first met Wendy Chappell-Dick, I was an elementary school camper with a
blonde bowl haircut and coke-bottle glasses at Michigan’s Camp Friedenswald. Wendy was often
on staff, and I found myself drawn to her luminous and
confident spirit. As both my parents will attest, I was in awe of Wendy because
she treated me as a creative equal—and because she sang with Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-6621202501145533502012-05-24T21:18:00.001-07:002012-05-25T13:29:25.648-07:00Poems Behind the Pulpit & Other Cincinnati Adventures
"If I should have a daughter..." by poet Sarah Kay (a TED talk)
Last weekend, my older sister gave birth to her second daughter. With my sister-in-law getting closer to her late summer due date, I've been ruminating over the role of motherhood more than usual these days. Truth be told, I'm in complete awe of biological mothers. And as I seek out friendships and my place withinBecca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-9254497737615038112012-04-28T18:56:00.001-07:002012-04-28T18:56:41.114-07:00Earth Day Arts Salon at Good Earth Farm: ATHENS, OH
This past Earth Day, an intergenerational group of local folks gathered to share their love and awe of creativity and creation. We sat in a living room warmed by a wood stove. We shared songs, photographs, stories, and poems. We sang together, oohed over the joyfully taut art of juggling, and took an afternoon to ponder how the arts often ask us to see the world differently--then to live in Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-90301948751913292472012-04-28T18:18:00.000-07:002012-04-28T18:19:08.798-07:00A Trio of Poets/Reading at Arts West: ATHENS, OH
So grateful to live in a town that brings out a crowd to hear new poetry and where reporters write full-page write-ups on new poetry books! In a dangerous move, I will compare poetry to football and say that the Arts West reading in April felt like a big home game, and poetry won. In this photo, we're surrounded by Wendy McVicker's haunting imagistic poems (on the banners!) before our Arts Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-4678042555564655532012-04-28T17:46:00.001-07:002012-04-28T17:53:49.025-07:00Look NowApril's been flinging about her poetry dress, a flamenco dancer that leaves me awed by cadence and color as she blurs off the stage. For the first time in four years, our irises are having a purple party. No more tall green stalks that taunt but don't deliver. All that storing up for the final last week of April in Southeastern Ohio.
And yes, I'm also reveling in the last few days of Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-17034765024956450912012-04-08T16:37:00.001-07:002012-04-26T09:44:55.855-07:00THE APPLE SPEAKS: A BOOK-AND-ARTS TOUR (UPDATED EVENTS & DATES)THE BOOK-AND-ARTS TOUR-IN-THE-MAKING
March 17th: Lawrence, Kansas
Writers' Salon with local creative writers
March 29th-April 1st: Harrisonburg, Virginia
Eastern Mennonite UniversityMennonite/s Writing Conference:
Readings March 30th & 31st
April 1st: Official Book Release
April 10, 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m: Athens, Ohio
Book signing at Little Professor Book Center
April 12th: Athens, Ohio
7:30Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-44554947575650967462012-04-08T16:32:00.001-07:002012-04-08T16:35:18.302-07:00Backer Thank YousSo many folks to thank since it's official as of an hour ago: the book-and-arts tour's officially funded with the help of more than 50 backers!
Here's a thank you toast to the following folks who are making this tour monetarily possible (There are many, many more who are sending notes of encouragement, buying the book, hosting and attending tour events and workshops, etc. etc!). So in no Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-55840933803193573082012-04-08T14:03:00.003-07:002012-04-08T14:48:07.120-07:00Mennonite/s Writing: HARRISONBURG, VAEaster Sunday, and more perennials--wild ginger, phlox, daffodils--are happily tucked into our land. Every year, we plant spreading greenery, hoping one day not to have to haul out the clippers and mowers on our San-Fran-like hills. (We're even considering getting a goat to help us with this job.)
Yesterday, we tended to our acres for blissful hours, cancelled social plans, felt the sun rememberBecca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410191144834497963.post-8914958651751789762012-03-25T13:14:00.004-07:002012-03-25T13:35:06.627-07:00Kicking off the Book-&-Arts Tour!
Though this may come as a shock to some purebred Mennonites, I just took my 1st trip to Kansas. Why? I accompanied my 82+-year-old grandma to visit relatives, an adventure that let me see her feistier side (and that indeed, one can fit several wheels of baby swiss cheese and rings of Trail bologna into a carry-on).
Sometimes, things just align in life. When they do, the best reaction is to Becca J.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14870667042370963038noreply@blogger.com2