When play was work, and work was play
I kick away the packed and icy snow from the slate walk and it breaks into chunks. Like tectonic plates, the continents move aside to reveal the dark stone underneath. I am transported back to the elementary school playground. Hour upon hour we played 4-square on that black top. Except on icy days when inch-thick […]
Re-LENT-ing
You don’t need to do more; just take more time with the things you’re doing. This rings in my ears as I ready things for my day. It is my regular plea to the woman who comes and cleans on Fridays. She rushes through, banging and clanking, piling up and going around. There seems to […]
Staying the course
It’s so hard to stay on track. What with everything pulling us this way and that. Attractive things. Tempting things. Necessary things. They all tug at our sleeves insisting we pay attention. Perhaps this is something of the sense Jesus had in the crowd when the woman who had suffered hemorrhages for years touched the […]
Recovering into Easterhood
We used to call it ham and egging. When playing as partners, one plays well while the other falls off the pace, then you switch. It’s not a planned strategy; it just happens this way when it happens well. It allows the team to thrive and neither partner to become completely exhausted or over-burdened. I […]
Morning Has Broken ~ welcome Spring!
In 1931, celebrated English children’s author Eleanor Farjeon wrote a poem for children to celebrate the first day of Spring. Set to a Gaelic melody, it climbed the pop charts as a Cat Stevens recording in 1971, and it remains one of Christendom’s favorite hymns. What a power lyrics have when we read and speak them! MORNING HAS […]
Holy Willpower
With thanks to my friends at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Vienna, VA, I share this article written for their Lenten booklet on this day, my Dad’s 78th birthday. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy […]
Out of the GOODness of my Heart…oh wait
I just dropped my daughter off at an early morning activity. She got out with her gear, shut the door and headed on her way. I almost opened my car door to call after her, “You’re welcome!” Because she should have thanked me for the ride. She usually does. Today she didn’t. But this isn’t […]