Yesterday I attended a district meeting of clergy with my oldest friend David. Usually, I must admit, I don’t much care for such gatherings. This one was better than usual. A couple of reasons come to mind: The clarity with which I began the day. The presence of my friend David (on disability, he usually […]
Another day. A long day yesterday and another long day ahead today. How to keep focused, creative, and open. And how NOT to succumb to the darkness in its many forms: anxiety, irritability, hostility, despair. How to choose love. When it comes down to it, that’s what life is all about. Simple choices. To consciously […]
So I sat at my computer this morning for 15 minutes writing the day’s post and then the computer went awol on me and my words evaporated into cyberspace mist. Frustrating. Also another reminder of my attachment to my own words. When my last breath comes I will have to let go of all my […]
Today is Tuesday, which for me means stumbling out the door half awake with bed head at 7 a.m. to have breakfast at a local diner with a small group of men. I’ve been doing this for years. The breakfast is so much a part of my routine that a year and a half ago […]
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the fact that I have been writing a sermon each week and preaching it most Sundays for the past 25 years. I mentioned in my sermon yesterday that I had calculated that this works out to something like over 500 total hours of actual preaching, or 21 straight […]
Marian Gibson was born on October 11, 1944. She came into this world physically challenged, and was immediately put up for adoption by her birth mother. Marian spent the first seven years of her life bouncing from foster home to foster home, unwanted, unloved, until finally being adopted by her mother and father at age […]
John Jernstrom was born on December 21, 1966 — the winter solstice, the first day of winter. He arrived on the scene in the middle of a blizzard; with all the ice and snow, it was a miracle his Mom and Dad made it to the hospital in Newton on time. When mother and son […]
Alice Curry Alice was born on June 17, 1907 in Buffalo, New York into a family that consisted of her parents and her older sister Evelyn. Her father sold tools, and her mother, a woman ahead of her time, operated her own business as a corseteer, driving her own car to visit women in their […]
The Eulogy for Carl Cole November 6, 2004 Carl Cole was my friend. I met him about seven years ago shortly after an accident he suffered that nearly took his life. He survived by the grace of God — a miracle really. I am grateful for having known Carl. Carl’s life wasn’t about making a […]
Madeline Ormsbee was born on October 9, 1917 in Neptune, New Jersey. She was the second child born to her parents: her brother Ray had been born ten years earlier. Whenever asked what her family’s ancestry was, Madeline would always answer simply, “American.” Madeline’s father died when she was just thirteen years old. The nation […]