Know Thyself
Thoughts of this languishing writing platform have been gnawing at me for weeks. I keep telling myself that I should post something new, but I always get stopped by those demons of doubt telling me I’m not good enough. That…
I’ll Take My Truth Intact, Thank You
This is my first post in a week. What have I been doing since I last published? What I usually do: living my life; spending time with my family; talking with them, with God; reading; thinking; writing. In fact, one…
Enjoying the View from Here
Well, I guess I cut my vacation short. Thank you to everyone who let me know that my words do matter. It means more than you can imagine. I used to hate Lent with every fiber of my being. I…
More Than You Bargained For
If eternal salvation is a gift from God through Jesus, it means that the only thing required to receive it is either asking for it or “holding out your hands to take hold of it.” If anything more than that—weekly…
When Clarity is Needed
In The Power and the Glory, considered by many to be Graham Greene’s masterpiece, the whisky priest is on the run in Tabasco, a state in Mexico where Catholicism was outlawed in the 1930s. Priests are being rounded up and…
Confession
After a Lifetime of Lies, It’s Time to Face the Truth I have been avoiding this post, but doing so is taking a physical toll, and I can’t put it off. A small, shivering wave of anxiety comes over me…
Reading, Writing, Rules, and Reason
Was it a year ago already that a friend told me about an unlikely book she was reading and finding fascinating? I describe the book as unlikely because if anyone were taking bets on either of us reading it, he…
Get In the Boat
I didn’t mean to post my sailboat drawing here at The Ruff Draft. I have another, slightly more clandestine (I like that word) blog called Ruff Edge Design that I think of as the place for my art attempts and…
White, Grey, Black
“I asked him what prayers. He said they prayed to Yezu Klisto and someone called Simon. Is that the same as Simon Peter?” “No, not quite the same. The fathers could tell you about Simon. He died in gaol nearly…
Daring Despite the Danger
“The known, our current story, protects us from the unknown, from chaos—which is to say, provides our experience with determinate and predictable structure. … When we are in the domain of the known, so to speak, there is no reason…
What Makes Us Whole?
“The central issue in this book is the conflict between the things we feel—the things our bodies register—and the things we think we ought to feel so as to comply with moral norms and standards we have internalized at a…
We Can’t Let the Light Go Out
“Men do not learn when they believe they already know.” —Barbara Ward I added that quote to the signature line of my email long ago. I am still unsure about who Barbara Ward actually is or was: an author (probably), an…
