My three-week-old grandson is a wonderful combination of juiciness, neediness, and spunk. Irresistibly cute, his magnetic powers draw you constantly to cuddle — in spite of all the leakage. He has surprising wrestling skills on the changing table, and when he grips your finger in the process, you’re down for the count. Tiny eyelashes, slightly … More My Three-Week-Old Grandson
Bless this child with the understanding that he is loved without limits And with the vulnerability to freely love others. Bless this child with a deep capacity for experiencing God’s presence, Along with a ceaseless need for more of the Divine. Bless this child with the confidence to know he is the Image of God … More A Blessing for My Grandson on Father’s Day
Last week my grandson was born. The first of the next generation in our family. It feels like I have become my father — looking ahead not one but two generations. Our culture is coming loose from many traditional moorings. Cut adrift, we’ve elected leaders who “hate good and love evil,” to quote Micah. But … More Because This Child Is Born
I am so tired of losing. Every major candidate I voted for last week lost. Again. I mention that not to raise a political agenda, but an emotional one. I feel exhausted by losing over and over. Teresa and I were part of a church start in Fort Worth years ago. We poured ourselves into … More Losing or Letting Go?
For Lent this year I’m trying forgiveness. Forgiveness of others. I’m trying to say it every day: “I forgive you,” as I picture someone who has harmed me, someone against whom I have hatred. (Now, I know we’re not supposed to “hate” people — our very Christian parents hammered that into us, so that … More Lent 2024: Dirty Forgiveness
The long fur on her legs and skirt is a silken drug. My doctor says the pain in my thumbs is osteoarthritis, which being translated means: “Because you’ve succeeded at living to your late sixties, the cartilage in your thumb joints is now gone.” “Where did it go?” No response from the orthopedist. … More Furry Elixir
I’ve been meaning to write a blogpost about patience, but I’ve had trouble taking the time for it. I spent an hour this morning in a medical office waiting room for my turn to bleed into a vial — routine lab work. I arrived fairly early, having fasted so all the tests would work. The … More Patience, Life, and Love in a Waiting Room
This morning I am plotting the reassignment of Skye, the Torturous Schnauzer. She has that all-too-frequent digestive problem again. It’s been five nights in a row that she has waked us up — 1am, 3am, 5am — to let her out so she can offer some partly-digested fertilizer to selected corners of the yard. Then, … More Beholding the Wonder of Everything
I am delighted when Google cannot answer my question. Like many humans on the planet with access to electricity and some kind of device, Google is a regular companion. We live in a world where simple questions can be readily answered by a simple internet search. (I’ve noticed that my spell-checker no longer insists on … More When Google Lets You Down
The Gods we love most are the ones we can comprehend and control. St. John tells us about a first-century theologian named Nicodemus who went one night to investigate Jesus’ orthodoxy. Like many of us, Nicodemus thought he had a good handle on the Almighty. But Jesus’ words took the legs out from under the … More The Gods We Love the Most
An Ever-Flowing Stream 