Every day after school, the son of a well-known Rabbi would enter his house, place his backpack on the dining room table, leave the house through the back door and head into the woods behind the house. At first, the Rabbi gave little thought…
The husband knew he could not adequately care for his wife, now in the final stages of Alzheimer's. He found a compassionate facility and visited her every day. At noon for lunch. Not 11:59. Not 12:01. Noon. Every day. Until the day of a minor accident when he found himself in an Emergency Room, his arm being stitched by a nurse as the…
Some headlines give you whiplash. “Heart Left Behind on Southwest Flight.” Oh my, that doesn’t sound good. It seems that a Southwest flight was forced to turn around after a human heart (meant for donation) was accidentally left on board.…
Ninety-three-year-old Magalia resident Margaret Newsum feared for her life, watching the Paradise fire bearing down. She was quite immobile, still recovering from a broken back, and she stood in front of her house, waiting to die. Then she saw, out…
Today, I’m in Wilmette, IL. Where we gathered with family and friends to remember Robert Boehm, who died too young on September 13. I stand alongside Rabbi Andy Bossov. We cry and laugh and tell stories. Reminded about the fragility…
This past week, I watched real-time TV images of devastation. Houses and businesses and lives and dreams, decimated. All the while, in awe of the absolute power and unpredictability of nature. And it hits me that we are, every single…
It is blueberry pancake Sunday. In the kitchen, the young mother works under a deadline and a promise; today before church, blueberry pancakes for her two sons, their favorite breakfast in the whole wide world. The two boys, aged 5 and 7, are…
Today, I’m in New Mexico, in rare air, one and a half miles higher than my garden on Vashon Island. This morning I preached at United Church of Angel Fire. Our text is from John’s Gospel. Our topic is bread…
A father knocks on his son’s bedroom door. "Jaime," he says, "wake up!" "I don’t want to get up, Papa," Jaime answers. “You need to get up,” his father shouts, "you have to go to school." “I don’t want to…
I am claustrophobic. I am a parent. So, watching the rescue of the boys from the Tham Luang cave, in what was called an “impossible mission,” tugged at every corner of my heart. But this is a very, very good…
