Author: jywatkins
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What It Looks Like for Me to Write a Book
There’s noise all around me, conversations and the whirring of coffee machines and chairs scraping against a tile floor. I sit at a counter against a window, the city buzzing in front of me over the top of my laptop. I’m as at home here writing as I am at home in the quiet of…
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Psalm 6: Drowning in Guilt
1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. 2 Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. 3 My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long? 4 Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because…
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The Roar and The Silence
As the golden-hued stones turn to sand, I slip my sandals off and carry them gently at my side. I’m halfway up the boardwalk, almost to the dunes, and the sound of the ocean is constant. The sky is overcast; it has been all day. There aren’t many people left on the beach. The sun…
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A Bit More Tangled
I pour some of the cloudy mixture over my scalp and begin scrubbing. There’s no satisfying lather to let me know I’ve covered and cleaned every inch of my hair, so I flex my fingers over and over again, massaging my scalp deeply, using my fingernails and rubbing my hair against the grain. I gave…
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The Washing
From where I sit at my wooden desk on the second floor of this sprawling office building, I can see the sky — not through a window, but through the octagonal skylight capping the atrium. What seemed like moments ago, the sky was blue, quintessential sky blue, with the kind of puffy clouds I’ve always…
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The World in Our Backyard
The house is quiet, for the most part. Olive Oil is sleeping contentedly on the bed in the other room. I’m sitting at the desk, tapping the keys. There’s a slight hum coming from the computer. The outdoors is making much more chatter than inside our walls. Outside, blue jays jeer and robins whistle and…
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Psalm 5: Should We Wait Expectantly?
1 Listen to my words, LORD, consider my lament. 2 Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. 3 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. 4 For you are not a God who is…
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Where I’m At Home in the World
If you haven’t heard about Tsh Oxenreider’s new book At Home in the World, it’s time to catch up. Tsh writes about her around the world trip with her husband and three kids, each chapter describing a new place, a new culture, a new potential place to feel at home, a new place that IS home to…
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Framing Conflict, and More “Blood Brothers”
As March rolled in, I introduced Blood Brothers for The Red Couch Book Club at SheLoves Magazine. You can read my post and the discussion post by Annie Rim at SheLoves Magazine. In my own commitment to writing about the intersection of faith and media, faith and communication, I also wanted to offer some further thoughts on…
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Psalm 4: God Puts Life Back Together
1 Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer. 2 How long will you people turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods? 3 Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.…
jamie y. watkins 