Life – a cup at a time
We need hugs, and as we break out of our cocoons of social distancing, we need them – and fear them – more than ever. I’m a tactile person by nature. From the time I was a toddler, I had my hands on – and in – everything! But I grew up in a family …
Is your faith boxed up so tight that Life is going to smash it to smithereens? Or maybe it has already. [A note to my atheist, agnostic, and non-Christian readers: We all believe in something, whether it is science, nature, humanity, Rah, Allah, Krishna or something else. When was the last time you thought about …
When the answers are absent or unfathomable In journalism, you’re taught to ask the six questions for any story: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. Scientists tend to concentrate on the What, When and How, with the others feeding into that mold. Philosophers and spiritual leaders look more for Why and Who might be …
I’ve had the good fortune to be the recipient of hospitality from many of people and in a variety of places during my life. Sometimes it was a simple meal obviously stretched with rice, potatoes or noodles to accommodate extra mouths. Other times it meant weeks or months of staying in a home as guest, …
I’ve returned to the work world just as many of my peers are about to retire and leave it behind. It’s both harder and more rewarding than I anticipated. The first question people ask is, Why go back? The simple answer is money. House payments and health insurance are the bulk of that. But the …
Do you look for God or the devil in the details? (Do you even pay attention?) I found myself asking this question the other day, when our roller coaster weather dipped from sun and the high 70s to 8 inches of snow and 19 degrees. We needed the snow. Good, ground-soaking snow that could soak …
I envy those who aren’t cursed by the need to see the big picture — those who see the world from one perspective in black and white, right and wrong, us and them. Once you begin to realize that much of life is really gray, it’s hard to go back. And it’s uncomfortable as hell. …
There once was a farmer with five sons. He had a large farm, with crops, cattle, pigs and horses. He and his sons had worked hard and improved the land, and they prospered. Next to them was another farmer, who had a wife and daughter. His wife was comely and his daughter beautiful. But while …
[While writing an earlier post about volcanoes and tasting ash, a memory flashed of another time and place where I tasted the grit of ash, and my mind wouldn’t let go. I wrote this before I learned that January 27, 2020 was the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. While this is simply my …
I was twenty years old when I learned I could be alone and strong at the same time. The Setting I was volunteering in a Christian youth hostel in Amsterdam, Netherlands, after travelling Europe for three months. In some ways my upbringing had left me naïve and vulnerable. But the year and a half in …