Triumph of grace
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…
Soak it all in
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…
Gifts to embrace and spill
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…
The gift of sanctuary
A young minister returned to his hometown in north Georgia. He struck up a conversation with an old farmer. They stood by the fencerow and watched as a new picking-machine rolled through a cotton field. Until now, the farmer had…
Leave a message of hope
"The barracks were full of them. The image was repeated over and over again. Butterflies. They were everywhere I looked. Some were crude. Others were quite detailed." In 1946 Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross visited the Maidenek concentration camp. The children's barracks were particularly sorrowful, with toys…
Music of transformation
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…
The gift of self
A great Rabbi died. He had been revered and loved by his congregation. After his death, it was decided that the Rabbi's son, himself a Rabbi, would take his father's place.This pleased the congregation, for the son would be "just…
Easter in our hearts
In the perfume shop show window was a large jar of freckle salve, and beside the jar was a sign, which read: Do You Suffer From Freckles?"What does the sign say?" asks Pippi Longstocking. She couldn't read very well because…
One soul helping another
Today’s NYT special section newspaper headline, “A Year Without Travel.”An accurate sentence about my own year, to be sure. And a good reminder to us all; a year without (fill in the blank).And yet, while I may have been “without”…
A dose of grace
A woman stands at the window and stares. We are on the morning commuter ferry, from Vashon Island to Seattle. A snow-covered Mount Rainier dominates the panorama. It stands prominent, imperial in the dawn light. (It is true. Here in…
