Red Tent Living

Scrapper

By: redtentwomen March 25, 2020March 24, 2020

Faith, FemininityCounseling, Megan, Recovery from Abuse, Resilience, Therapy7 Comments

I want to hold her in my hands and look at her face. My eyes scroll over the pictures that haven’t moved from the self-adhesive plastic covered pages for years. I am looking for her. As I turn the page, I take her in and notice a tightening in my stomach. “She’s a pistol,” I…

She Knows

By: redtentwomen March 23, 2020March 22, 2020

Day to Day, LiteratureJill English, Poetry3 Comments

God is present in the dark. I remember reading this in scripture – something about the darkness being as light to God. Like her, you were in the darkness before you were in the light. I watch her – this tiny human who tests the limits of her independence. This tiny human who tests the…

Fight Like A Girl

By: redtentwomen March 20, 2020March 20, 2020

Day to Day, Faith, Femininitycancer, Cancer Survivor, Change, Death, embracing change, Loss of Spouse, Margaret McCoy3 Comments

My husband was diagnosed with acute kidney disease with renal failure in 2012. At that time, he was driving a truck making 10-day trips from Texas to New Mexico and I often accompanied him. On April 1, 2012, I started my period. I had been dealing with “the change” for ten years, which included horrible,…

Community In A Time Of Pandemic

By: redtentwomen March 19, 2020March 19, 2020

Day to Day, FaithCommunity, Covid19, Pandemic, Resilience, Tracy Johnson11 Comments

Precious Women of Red Tent Living, Greetings from the make shift space that has become my new office in a corner of my home. As I type my children who still live at home can be heard just outside my door. The sounds of Xbox online gaming with friends from my 15 year old and…

Into The Unknown

By: redtentwomen March 18, 2020March 17, 2020

Day to Day, Faith, Intentional LivingCS Lewis, Susan Tucker, The Allender Center, Transformation, Transforming Pain, Trauma Informed Narrative Therapy6 Comments

Blue fades seamlessly into blue as water and sky meet. The sun sets over the Puget Sound, and my time here sets too. I sit in a candlelit room filled with buzzing conversations. The thick of happy hour surrounds the liminal space I hold. I have just completed two years of training in narrative focused…

The Bully

By: redtentwomen March 16, 2020March 15, 2020

Day to Day, FaithBarbara Beecham, recovery from sexual abuse, Speaking Your Truth14 Comments

At family gatherings as a child, I did not lack for cousins to play with as five of us “baby boomer” cousins were born in the same year. My father used to tell the story of a family gathering where all of the cousins were present. One of my same-aged cousins was being a bully…

Advocate

By: redtentwomen March 13, 2020March 12, 2020

Day to Day, Faith, WholeheartedHaley Wiggers, John 9, Speak Up4 Comments

I was reading a story in John 9 recently. As I read, I noticed that I was becoming irritated and gradually enraged with the characters in the story. You see, there was a blind man who had been blind his entire life. Suddenly a charismatic new leader, the rumored Messiah, entered the city and came…

The Evidence Is In

I am done proving me. My life is not one prolonged job interview, a permanent Olympic trial, an ongoing all-state music audition. I am not a college application for admissions officials to peruse, an employee scrutinized for business acumen or her annual performance review, an associate striving to make partner. I refuse to be

Desperation

By: redtentwomen March 11, 2020March 10, 2020

Day to Day, LiteratureHannah Wilder, Poetry1 Comment

Desperation is a sliding tear A world abounding with hounds and fear It is a question that scalds your soul Temptation that comes too high a toll

Trees, Hope, Justice And Waiting For Sunday

By: redtentwomen March 9, 2020March 9, 2020

Day to Day, Faith, FemininityAging, Becky Allender, Dan Allender, Dr. Dan Allender, Justice, Racial Justice, Sexual Abuse Recovery, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America20 Comments

I sometimes want to be a tree. I want to blow in the breeze, feel the rain on my branches, shelter birds and squirrels, and grow roots deep and wide so that I am strong and resilient to whatever might want to take me down. I want to bend and grow without to-do lists and…