It is pumpkin time. And our leaf theatre amazes and soothes and mesmerizes and charms. It has been our best October ever. And yet, our emotional earth shakes. Again. The news—the mail bombs, the hate crime in Louisville, the Tree…
“I’ve lost my way.” One man confesses to his friend. “And it’s not good, because I don’t know how much more I can take." “I understand,” his friend says. “I don’t know what is next, but I think I’m close…
This past week, I watched real-time TV images of devastation. Houses and businesses and lives and dreams, decimated. All the while, in awe of the absolute power and unpredictability of nature. And it hits me that we are, every single…
We walked along the shore of Lake Michigan, on the campus of Northwestern University, our backdrop the straight-edge line of a powder-blue horizon toward the east, and the Chicago skyline to the south. My friend and I had nowhere to go, and weren't in…
Some days, we wake up in a world that is not a friend of grace. At least, it doesn’t feel so. This past Thursday put a spotlight on what we know to be true, we live in very broken world.…
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, they would shout repeatedly, "Sale! Sale! Good items for sale!" So numerous were these vendors that the men found…
“I hate people. I hate life. I hate the world.” Lucy is apoplectic. “I thought you had inner peace,” Charlie Brown says to her. “I do,” Lucy responds. “But I have a lot of outer obnoxiousness.” Speaking of life’s…
Care of any kind—compassion, generosity, communication, reconciliation, service, ministry, teaching, giving—begins with and is nourished by self-care. Or in the words of Charlie Parker, “If it ain’t in you it can’t come out of your horn.” Care begins with the power…
It is blueberry pancake Sunday. In the kitchen, the young mother works under a deadline and a promise; today before church, blueberry pancakes for her two sons, their favorite breakfast in the whole wide world. The two boys, aged 5 and 7, are…
I spent last Wednesday with an animated group of teachers—St. Augustine’s in Vancouver, BC. Their retreat, before a new school year. Our topic, an invitation to create sanctuary, allowing us to honor habits that sustain our wellbeing. We began the…
