Welcome to Wine & Marble

Welcome to my new home on the interwebz! I’ll be posting here and retiring “The Nest Egg” for good. It has served its purpose and outgrown its name and original focus.

I never really explained that name, “The Nest Egg,” very well, because it was quickly outdated, though still personally relevant. It was the name of a sacred space in the novel Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, where a primary character (named Mattie Chatham) would withdraw to be still in the sanctuary of nature. She was a good woman in a hard situation, but was always loving and kind. The tract of land called the Nest Egg was where she would retreat to be made whole–it was her inheritance from her father, and Berry uses it as a sort of microcosm for heaven. It’s still something that holds beauty and meaning for me, but I feel it’s not really a good fit for the general tone and focus of my writing here. And I might as well retire the pseudonym–it was to keep certain people from getting upset at me writing honestly, but that hasn’t been possible despite my efforts, and is mostly just confusing now. I am Hännah, and we’ve been talking about what I’ve been writing almost since I started. I will do my utmost to respect their boundaries and privacy while still trying to talk about why quiverfull/Christian patriarchy philosophies are damaging and undermine grace. And I will be honest about what spiritual abuse is and why it’s wrong. Hearing people be relieved to find that they are not alone in their recovery from these harmful teachings is worth it. Seeing my younger siblings living more freely and knowing healthier expressions of love is worth it.

So I’m retiring that blog and the corresponding pseudonym, and I’ll be here at Wine & Marble. I plan to explain in several posts why I chose this name (thanks to the friends who put up with me during the brainstorming process and provided input). I’ll also tell the story of how I’ve been finding healing in the Anglican church, why I say that communion is the main reason I’ve been able to hold onto my faith, why I see Advent as being a penitential season, and how my understanding of place and placelessness has driven me to this shelter in the traditions and prayers of an old church heritage. It’s not a new story, and it doesn’t have a lot of reasoned arguments for God’s existence or the problem of pain. But it’s my story and I’m thankful that I have found some wholeness and fellowship beyond my wandering.

In the meantime, I’ll probably be working out the kinks here a little, so if you notice anything funky, let me know. A housekeeping note: If you were subscribed via email on the old blog, your subscription has been tranferred here. However, if you just followed through WordPress, you need to resubscribe.

And many thanks to David Somerville for creating the header.

1 thought on “Welcome to Wine & Marble

  1. I love what you said (briefly) about the Anglican Church. As a fellow former-attendee of Grace Anglican in Slippery Rock I have to say I found a lot of healing in that church. Though I’m not currently attending an Anglican church I will always love the Anglican tradition for what it did for me and the perspective it provided many miles from home. And especially Reverend Ethan Magness (what a great name). I would still say he’s the best pastor I’ve ever been under. I miss him and the church tremendously.

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