When you wake to 6 inches of snow (and wind chill in the teens), other plans for the day are easily ignored.I smile remembering my Father—in Michigan’s UP—who called 6 inches of snow a “dusting”.When I was a much younger…
I spent the weekend leading a retreat at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, Arizona. A sanctuary in the desert. The retreat theme: Spiritual Hydration and the Gift of Enough. This is the kind of subject that entices you with optimism only to give…
Gene Logsdon's father-in-law had tried his hand at making bootleg whiskey on his Kentucky farm. He washed the leftover runny mash down a sinkhole, thereby destroying the evidence. Or so he thought. One evening at milking time, the cows came…
There are moments in our lives that can change everything. For Chris Orwig, it happened in a tent, at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California. A bachelor party; and he was camping with a group of…
This week I received a letter that nourished, and restored my heart. A balm to my soul. Well, truth be told, the letter was written and sent in 1513. Let’s just say it took a while to get to me.…
Buddha's teaching method was counter intuitive, to say the very least. More often than not, he didn't even talk. He just sat there.There is a well-known story about The Buddha sitting in a place with hundreds of people gathered around…
On my walk this morning, I spend some time talking with the geese. Two families heartwarmingly hanging out, nonplussed by an unremitting rain, the goslings nestled together at the edge of the pond. Irv and Dottie’s five are about all…
The young couple stands in the long ticket queue at Knott's Berry Farm. Between the ticket kiosk and the main gate their two young boys--maybe ages five and six—are passing the time, playing, waiting for their parents. Their focus of…
Standing in a pristine Alaskan stream, the fisherman's first catch, a lovely eighteen-inch trout. The fisherman and his friend admire it. "Most impressive," his friend says thinking of the delectable evening meal ahead. And then, unceremoniously, the fisherman tosses the…
The middle drawer of her mother's dresser was filled with silk stockings, dozens of pairs in many exquisite colors, each wrapped in the store's original package. They had never been worn. Rachel admired the stockings, imagining the texture and enjoying…
