Archive - kyla RSS Feed

Infant Invocation

May 21, 2012 in family, kyla, parenting, Vera, word with 0 Comments

On May 14, 2012 a new human life entered the reality of our tangible earth. Vera Quinn Keller was born at 1:20 p.m. weighing a delicate 7.5 pounds. With eyes wide open only moments from breathing oxygen into her new lungs I held her and spoke what came to mind as most similarly resembling the same words spoken to her sister, Kyla Beth Keller, nearly 5 years ago. I don’t fully remember the exactness of every word. The intimacy and meaningfulness of the moment was too overwhelming. The following is my best recollection of the words spoken over Vera as my weeping, water-filled eyes met her quiet, attentive, receptive, and awe-filled gaze:

“May you love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

May you love your neighbor as yourself. May you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

May you be protected from all evil and may no evil come upon you.

May you be filled with love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.

May you be filled with the presence of God. May his presence be all around you, over you, beside you, behind you, and before you.

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be at your back. May the sun shine upon your face.

May you love God and serve others with your whole being. May you be a maker of peace and be blessed. May you be filled with his love.”

With a cross+ drawn by my quivering finger upon her forehead and with the sign over the cross over her head, heart, and across her chest, which was as wide as my hand:

“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit which fills you and all the space between us. Peace be upon you. So let it be.”

These words continue to be spoken upon her everyday. May they be true.

 

Dirt and Light

December 22, 2010 in advent, jesus, kyla with 1 Comment

http://player.vimeo.com/video/18086713?portrait=0&color=ff9933

Dirt and Light from Travis Keller on Vimeo.

May you have eyes to see that Jesus has come.

Should I have been “at church” instead?

November 14, 2010 in Church, Ecclesia, family, imagination, kyla, love, parenting with 0 Comments

http://player.vimeo.com/video/15287137

Kyla, Koalas, and Pachyderms from Travis Keller on Vimeo.

Eat Like This

April 30, 2010 in deconstruction, family, jesus, kyla with 4 Comments

I have had many people comment on Facebook, via e-mail and in conversation about how much they like the posts from the “Teaching Little Kyla” series. I’ll be posting more of those even though I’ve debated renaming the series, “Learning from Little Kyla.” I’m also going to add some posts on family dynamics and parenting for those of you who are young parents like us or for those who may be parents soon. Sarah and I hope our experience can be useful.

You can also expect some upcoming posts on environmental sustainability. My thought pattern for adding posts on family/parenting and creation care centers on the idea of stewardship. We have many things that have been given. A few of those include our family members, our bodies, and the earth. Those things which we have been given must be cared for and nurtured as an active response of gratitude (worship) toward God.

I sent an update through Twitter yesterdag evening that said, “how to get your kid to eat like this: http://twitgoo.com/px6cg coming soon to http://www.subversiveREFORMATION.com.” The picture below was attached. So… here’s what worked for us:

1) No fast food.

Sarah and I disagree here a little bit. I’m for absolutely no fast food while Sarah suggests that moderation is the key (i.e. your kid won’t die by having a small order of fries once every two weeks but I wonder why I would ever want to give my child beef product extract and anti-foaming agent, both included in a certain company’s fries).

2) Model healthy eating.

Don’t expect your kid to be healthy if you are not. A frequent late night snack of mine is steamed broccoli.

3) Plant a garden.

We turned around and Kyla was chomping on a whole tomato. Tomatoes are her favorite food and she is now very excited about planting a garden and growing her own food again this year.

4) Start with Veggies.

When Kyla was progressing through the toothless stages of baby food, we made sure that before we introduced any fruits that she was eating every kind of vegetable that we could purchase or make.

5) Take your kid grocery shopping.

Let your little one pick out some things in the fresh fruit and vegetable section rather than the cookie aisle.

6) Stick to Cheerios.

Think of all the ways that sugar is introduced. One of those is by cereals. None of us really eat cereal other than whole grains. I love me some Lucky Charms and Frosted Flakes but I’ve been resisting the urge and doing Cheerios with Kyla.

7) Zero soda pop, no chocolate milk, and limit the juice.

Kyla is perfectly content with water, skim milk, and an occasional fruit juice (hopefully without high fructose corn syrup as the number 2 ingredient).

And… throw in a little flax seed and some lentils.

Give it a try. Your kids will love you for it — their lives will be better. It’s stewardship. It’s Christian.

Teaching Little Kyla… The Sign of the Cross (and Willimon).

January 30, 2010 in Church, Ecclesia, jesus, kyla, mvnu, prayer, religion, Theology with 1 Comment

“Teaching Little Kyla…”
A series on Travis and Sarah’s journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune.

When Kyla begins to pray she now touches her forehead, then her chest, then crosses her shoulders while saying, “In the name of the Fahver, in the name of the Son, and the Holwy Spiwint.” She proceeds to give thanks for the most simple things in life. Her genuine gratitude really shows and I’ll tell you more about that in my next post.

After seeing and hearing Kyla do the sign of the cross, someone asked her, “Are you catholic?” To which I replied, “Of course she’s catholic.” The word catholic means “one, universal.” The people of God are one church. There may be some organizational nomenclature that distinguishes one gathering of the church from another gathering of the church but ultimately there is only one church, the people of God.

Scott Peterson, University Chaplain at MVNU, asked last night if I have read the book “Who Will be Saved?” by William H. Willimon. I have yet to read it but am putting that as a priority on my reading list. Scott disclosed that the essential theme of the text recognizes the tension between “the narrow way” of Jesus and a universalist perspective that suggests all paths of religion or the unlimited grace of God allow all people access to God (I am not attempting fully or accurately describe universalism; that is a conversation for another day). If I recall the conversation with Scott correctly, he said that Willimon (in the previously mentioned text or another) suggests that those who will be saved must be a part of the church.

What does it mean to be a part of the church?

What does it mean to be identified by the sign of the cross?

Please comment.

^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

Teaching Little Kyla… How to Paint and Love.

November 11, 2009 in art, compassion, family, giving, global, justice, kyla, love, worship with 1 Comment

“Teaching Little Kyla…”
A series on Travis and Sarah’s journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune.

The Invisible Children and Remember Nhu Clubs at MVNU are hosting an Art and Poetry awareness and fundraising event tonight (Wednesday) in the student union. Kyla will be presenting her piece of art that she and I composed this weekend. Her piece is called “Red and Yellow, Black and White” in reference to the song, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” As we talked about “all the children of the world” and our need to show and express love to all, Kyla used her hands and fingers to paint red, yellow, and black around a cut-out of Africa that I drew, cut out, and taped to the canvas board making a white silhouette of the country where the dehumanization of children continues through militarization and exploitation. Though I cannot talk with Kyla yet about child soldiers and sexual trafficking, she can begin to understand that love and kindness for all of humanity. Eventually, she’ll hear their stories.

We are incapable to loving absent from relationship. We are incapable of relationship absent from the context of story. We have to learn about each other. We have to be aware of the formative life experiences that make us who we are both individually and as a collective group of people in a global community.

The world is our canvas. May we cover it with strokes of love.

^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

Teaching Little Kyla… Gratitude.

September 24, 2009 in community, consumption, family, kyla, prayer, teaching with 1 Comment

“Teaching Little Kyla…”
A series on Travis and Sarah’s journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune.

Kyla now begins all her prayers by saying, “God, thank you.” That’s it. “God, thank you.” When is the last time that has been your prayer? Are your prayers prayed out of worry? Selfishness? How about gratitude? Thankfulness for the activity of God amongst his people.

When Sarah and I purchased Kyla’s bed to transition her from crib to awesome Malm from Ikea, I finished putting it together and Kyla looked up at me from a little less than a meter high and said, “Sank you, daddy.” She had a bed. And she was thankful.

Since then there have been a number of times that Kyla has surprised me in her simple statements of “thank you.” For what are you thankful? To whom are you thankful? Are you satisfied with what has been provided for you or do you normally feel ripped off? Like you drew the short straw. Like things never go your way. Or… like you deserve more? What gives us that sense of entitlement? What makes us so centered on having more? What keeps us from being grateful?

Is Kyla’s gratitude actually something that exists due to what she receives or possesses? How has she learned to be grateful? How do you exemplify gratitude and for what are you grateful?

^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

Monsters and Orphans and Crabs, Oh, My!

April 12, 2009 in adoption, conforming, culture, empire, film, fun, kyla, people, politics with 3 Comments

My friend Matt Frye commented on my last post about parenting. I was simply going to reply in the comments but his thought were too funny and legit to leave there. Here is his comment followed by my response:

"dude, remember that scene in ‘the little memaid’ where flounder and that seagull and ariel (spelling?) are naming things. like they named that fork something strange. and then she started combing her hair like it was spaghetti. man, that was funny. i don’t know why ‘the littler mermaid’ came to mind, but it did. maybe because of that scene and because of flounder the fish. and because the dad in the movie is awesome. remember that beard? and his deep voice. and his trident. and also, i feel that one does not have to be a parent, or a good parent to offer good words about parenting. like i’ve never been deep sea diving before, but if i read a few books about it i am sure that i could offer some good words. especially if the book was written by sebastion the lobster. or was he a crab? and why did he have a sweet caribean accent and everyone else spoke plain english. ok i’m done. see you daddy."

MY RESPONSE :

I know why "The Little Mermaid" came to mind. It is Kyla’s favorite movie and Ariel is her favorite character. Well… I’m not sure… she also really likes "Annie" and "Monsters, Inc." I like her favorite movies because Ariel has a substantial identity crisis and subverts the imperial reign of her father the king (though I don’t hope that I’ll need to be subverted; nor do I plan on bearing a trident or running for political office). I really hope that Kyla realizes that her identity is "in Christ" rather than being defined by voices that represent the popular appeal to human goodness or self-hatred. The fork is called a "dinglehopper" and, yes, Kyla always tries to comb her hair with her fork (which she is now beginning to use quite well unless she is stabbing peas). Sebastian is a crab not a lobster. All crabs have Caribbean accents. Or… do they? Maybe crabs speak "normally" and we’re all just too arrogant to realize that we (whoever "we" is) are the ones with the accents.

On to other movies… Annie. Annie is an orphan and Kyla loves her. Enough said. Monsters, Inc. employees Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan are just plain funny and Kyla looks and acts like "Boo." The children in the movie are like the "untouchables" of 1c. Israel (except that children get scared by monsters in their closets and I don’t think that ever really happened). "Sully" ends up being the figure that redeems the monsters’ relationship with the children. Rather than scaring the "dangerous" children, Sully leads the energy-creating-and-capturing-monster-world-industry to not fear the children. Interestingly, those named "monsters" are the ones who must learn to not fear the "unclean" and "untouchable."

Quite simply…

August 3, 2008 in beauty, family, kyla with 3 Comments

… beautiful.

Kyla.

June 23, 2008 in beauty, family, kyla with 0 Comments

We celebrated Kyla’s first birthday this year. We had a family gathering on June 14 and then did a cookout with some friends on her birthday. I spent the night crying over Kyla’s crib as she slept. I felt partially mournful as her first year of life has passed. We can never return to see the first time she opened her eyes, the first time she laughed, the first time we read her a book, the first time she crawled and walked, the first time she reached for us, the first time she helped me water the flowers, the first time… there are so many. As I thought of all the beautiful moments we have shared I was incredibly thankful for her presence in our lives. We have never cried so much. We have never laughed so much. She is beautiful and full of peace. I love her dearly and am hopeful that though she will never be as small she will still curl up on my chest , hold onto my leg, and look at me with outstretched arms… smiling. Oh, that smile.

Page 1 of 212»