The gift of wonder
Very early this morning, I was serenaded by a great horned owl.I close my eyes, smile real big, and let the cares of the world (those that clamor and gnaw), gratefully recede.It sounds as if he (she) is right outside…
Alive and well in our heart
The opening battle sequence in the movie Cold Mountain realistically portrays the gruesome nature of Petersburg's "Battle of the Crater." Union engineers created a massive crater with explosives in an attempt to penetrate the Confederate lines. The scene is a graphic depiction of life's fragile nature. A reminder…
Tough enough to be soft
In January, near a sign that read, “Prayer only No visit. No phone,” I sat and prayed, in Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.Watching the inferno this past week, my heart hurt. Sometimes we don't have words.I can tell you that I…
Married to amazement
This week, a saint died. Mary Oliver, the patron saint of paying compassionate attention. Her poetry is the art of bearing witness to our world. She invited us to put our lips to the sacred present in the ordinary. She…
The gift of vulnerability
Sherry Turkle visited a Darwin exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History with her teenage daughter. At the entrance of the show stood a cage with two grand Galapagos turtles. Magnificent creatures from a fantasy world. Feeling sorry for the turtles, and completely unmoved by the wonder…
No restrictor plate in our soul
Going through his five-year-old son's backpack, a father found a picture of a little boy standing under a rainbow crying. His first thought was, "Oh God, my son is having some serious problems." When he asked his son about the picture, the little boy told his father that he had been playing…
Let’s not settle for numb
In her delightful book Life is a Verb, Patti Digh writes about a visit to Washington D.C. She has traveled to meet her husband David. Her flight arrives in the afternoon, so they decide to grab a cup of tea before dinner, choosing a restaurant near Dupont Circle. It is a little…
When our spirit sags
“Life itself has no meaning,” Joseph Campbell wrote. “However, each of us has meaning, and we bring it to life.” I like the paradigm shift here: meaning moves from the outside to the inside. It’s just that sometimes, we lose…
A song that saves people
In the movie Walk the Line, Johnny Cash auditions for Sam Phillips. He is hoping for a record deal. He is playing an uninspired and insipid version of a gospel hymn. And Phillips tells him no. When Cash demands a reason, Phillips says, "Because I don't believe you."…
Just to boogie
I was born and raised Baptist. The kind of Baptist that flinches when the words ritual or sacrament are mentioned, tainted as they were, by profane Catholicism. (But then again, we didn’t know what the words meant, only that anything…
