Tender gravity of kindness
I had zero planned for Sabbath Moment, and at wits end, until Emma Thompson read me a poem. Well, it may not have been just for me, but it sure felt like it.She read Kindness, by Naomi Shihab Nye. One…
Do not be dismayed
“Do you really talk to the sheep every week?” I was asked this week on a Zoom gathering.“I do,” I tell them. Although truth be told, most days I just stand there and listen. They’ve got a corner on something…
Place love at the center
“You look sad.”“I am,” I tell the sheep. “A great man died this week. And I miss him.”“What made him great?” a little one asked.“He made us better people.” I like Andrew Young’s take. John Lewis “didn't convince you by…
Safe to come home
Some stories are like restorative prayers. They invite (no, they require) retelling, for the healing of our spirit and our soul.In 1942, the Nazis were actively and forcefully rounding up Jews in France. In the picturesque farming village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (in southern France), Reformed…
Carry one another home
On my walk this morning, I stop at the fence. My congregation, the sheep, are reclining contentedly in the grass. “Well,” their look asked me. “Do you have a story this week or not?”“It’s an old story,” I tell them.…
Invitation to make space
This week I received email from readers about their illness from covid. And email about the death of loved ones, from covid. Email from people unsettled, tired and scared, looking for words. “Are we going to be okay? How do…
We were made for this
Change messes with us. I wish it weren’t so.You know, messes with the tidy (manageable and predictable) script we tote for mental security. About the way life should be.“Now, we need to think outside the box,” someone posted.“What box?” another…
The gift of mercy
In the living room, Christmas is still in the air. Yes, the Christmas tree is still up, until the 12th day of Christmas, January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. I’m content to live this way until Lent. But something tells me that I…
Gentle hands of grace
We live in a world that needs healing, from gentle hands of grace.Writer Kim Rosen visited a safe house in Kenya for young Masai women who had run away from home to escape genital mutilation. The girls liked to sing, and asked Rosen if she…
We dance to heal
This week a news story stopped me in my tracks.(Which is hardly abnormal these days.)But this story made me pay attention, inviting questions about what really matters. Let’s be honest, in today’s din, that’s not easy to do. After 30…
