What is life? Any puppy can show you
Are you alive? How can you tell? Frederic Martini, the author of my Anatomy and Physiology textbook, says that, “though the world around us contains an enormous diversity of living organisms that vary widely in appearance and lifestyle … biologists have found that all living things share certain basic characteristics.” These include: Responsiveness Growth and […]
Narrowing, but not narrow-minded
What if God’s will is so expansive that it includes everyone — everything we are and everything we do — and only narrows when we learn the lesson we’re meant to so we can take the next healthy step in life? That would mean each of us is progressing along God’s path, within God’s will, […]
One Table, Many Chairs
Something special happens when we insist on one table with everyone around it. Oh, we may not like everyone there. We may not have seen them in years. We may not even recognize them. But, when the first rule of gathering is that everyone gets a seat at the table, the dynamic changes. It seems […]
Gate by Gate: Navigating the Slalom Course of Life
Sometimes you just have to do things in order. First things first. No exceptions. Oh, I want to put things behind me and just “get on with it.” But life is not a ‘now we join our regularly scheduled program, already in progress’ experience. Stuff happens. Sometimes it is big stuff, and we need to put […]
Eat the ripe ones first
Are you the kind who picks through the rotten ones first, just to see if they’re salvageable? Who trims and stomachs the sour just so they don’t go to waste? Then, by the time you get to the red, ripe luscious ones, they are sour, too? Today, I am eating the red, shiny ones first! […]
What would Jesus Tweet?
“Your words were a blessing.” It may have been the timing or the delivery or the situation, I don’t know. They were just words, my words, on a card or letter. Not flowery or lovely or well-heeled, but offered sincerely whenever I felt the nudge to write. After I had heard this blessing-thing from a […]
If peace were a verb…
Wage Peace Wage peace with your breath. Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole buildings and flocks of redwing blackbirds. Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields. Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees. Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact. Wage peace with your […]
Beattitude addendum
Blessed is the moment when we stop asking “what does it mean?” and start doing what it says.
Bottom of the Ninth
Dear Faithful KC Readers, Some of you will heave a huge sigh of relief to hear that I am planning on scaling back the posts to this blog. When I started, they were nearly daily. A year in, they became a 3 times per week practice. God and I have been talking and we agree […]
A Bowl of Cold Water
Our husky is old and on his last legs. Well, 3 of those legs. The fourth doesn’t work well any more. In fact, it’s more hindrance than help. His poor arthritic hip rotates in and, in his attempts at ambulation, takes him far afield. What used to be a straight line sees him 90 degrees off […]