Stories do my heart good. And sometimes stories are more important than food for nourishment. Because they are reminders of sufficiency, and the sacrament of the present, and help us not give way to any restrictive narrative of fear. Today’s…
Once upon a time, there was a boy who didn't like himself very much. It was not his fault. He was born with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is something that happens to the brain. It means that you can think but sometimes can't walk,…
Yesterday, on the 20th anniversary of 9-11, the images seared into our memories are recharged. Front and center.“There is a sacredness in tears,” Washington Irving wrote. “They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently…
On my walk this morning, a light rain and cool gray skies. It’s a little early for November weather, but it feels good to put on my Seahawks rain jacket.So. I stand with the geese for a wee bit, and…
Mohini was a regal white tiger. In the 1960s and 70s, she lived at the National Zoo in Washington DC. Most of those years she lived in the old lion house--a twelve-by-twelve-foot cage with iron bars and a cement floor.…
“Every Christmas I used to go home to west Tennessee.” (Fred Craddock tells the story in “Craddock Stories”.)“An old high school chum of mine, I called him Buck, had a restaurant in town, every year it was the same. I'd…
Two men visiting Hong Kong, noticed the ubiquity of street vendors, all pushing their carts along, pell-mell, in and out of traffic. Attempting to gain the attention of any potential customer, the vendors would shout repeatedly, "Sale! Sale! Good items…
A fire rages in a two-story house. A young boy's head is visible leaning out a second-floor window. His voice is piercing and plaintive, "Daddy, help me! Daddy, where are you?"Smoke (from first-floor-flames) billows from shattered ground floor windows, now…
In the emergency room, Benny's face is black and blue, caked in dried blood, his eyes pinched shut, his lips swollen and bleeding. In the middle of the night, two men had broken into Benny's home, beaten him severely, and…
Somewhere along the way, every one of us has wrestled with discouragement, disillusionment or defeat (only exacerbated by a disappointment in ourselves).And yes, our pandemic year illuminated all of this.And this weight of our world is real. The George Floyd…
