{"id":3,"date":"2010-05-27T08:02:41","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T08:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/welcome-to-thin-places.html"},"modified":"2010-05-27T08:02:41","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T08:02:41","slug":"welcome-to-thin-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/welcome-to-thin-places.html","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Thin Places"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"IMG_4239.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I started this blog a
\nfew years ago, although I only began writing regularly last summer. The
\ninitial intentions for this space remain the same, however, and so I would like
\nto introduce this space with the initial post from July, 2008 (with the caveat that the photo at the left is of the Caribbean, not the Long Island Sound!):<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

We spend our summers in
\na little town on the Connecticut shore. I forget the peacefulness of this place
\nevery year until we drive up and see the water and smell the salty air and feel
\nthe breeze. It is what the Celtic Christians called a thin place–a place where
\nheaven and earth touch, where God seems more readily present, more easily accessed.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is easier here to
\npray, especially prayers of praise and of gratitude. It is easier to carve out
\ntime to read and write and reflect. It is easier to avoid the distractions of
\nthe phone and the Internet and the television. It is easier to delight in our
\ndaughter Penny–as she pours water from one cup to another in her wading pool,
\nas she relishes a bowl of chocolate ice cream, as she shouts “Yay!”–arms
\noverhead, eyes wide–upon sighting a boat on the water. It is a refuge. It is a
\nthin place.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But we only come here
\nfor the summer or an occasional weekend during the school year. And I suspect
\nthat if we lived here year round, some of the magic would dissipate. I would
\nwake up cranky some mornings, find myself blind to Penny’s discoveries, feel my
\nshoulders tighten as bills and phone calls and appointments lined up. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The gift of this
\nplace, in other words, is present only to the degree that I am able to receive
\nit. And although it is harder to discover thin places when I don’t have a view
\nof the sea, I know they exist everywhere. In that moment each night when I watch
\nPenny sleeping. In the warmth of Peter’s hand upon my leg as we read in bed. In
\nthe question a man of a one-month old with Down syndrome asked yesterday. After
\n45 minutes of conversation, he said, “Does your daughter call you Mama?” It was
\na thin place, a sacred moment, to be able to tell him that his daughter will
\nknow him as her father, that she will love and be loved. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This blog is intended to be about discovering,
\nand remembering, thin places. It is meant to uncover ideas, relationships,
\npoints of connection, moments of deep beauty that draw us towards one another,
\nand towards the Holy One.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I started this blog a few years ago, although I only began writing regularly last summer. The initial intentions for this space remain the same, however, and so I would like to introduce this space with the initial post from July, 2008 (with the caveat that the photo at the left is of the Caribbean,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nWelcome to Thin Places - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/welcome-to-thin-places.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welcome to Thin Places - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I started this blog a few years ago, although I only began writing regularly last summer. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}