Thou Preparest a Table Before Me
Last Sunday, the pastor of Freedom Plains Presbyterian Church asked for help cleaning the tiny cups used for Communion. They’d switched to glass, or back ...
Category: reflections
Living on Margin
Instant gratification is made possible by just-in-time delivery. What if just-in-time never arrives? I have four eggs left in the refrigerator and half a gallon...
Echoes of Holy Wisdom
What we can do with physics and math–and curiosity–is awe-inspiring. Natural light moving across the surfaces of marble and gold causes glitter that...
What Practice?
Doesn’t this miss the point? Tenzin Priyadarshi, a Buddhist monk and the CEO of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. To auto...
Pride Goeth Before
Most of us find it hard to admit mistakes. Was the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak worsened because admitting the scope of the problem, or that a problem even e...
There’s a World Outside Your Window
Look. Bit of a thunderstorm this morning. All that rain drumming on the roof suggested I stay in bed, so I made oatmeal for breakfast. Just before sitting down ...
How long, O Lord?
“Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this peop...
Why Do I Keep a Library?
Hope. My father keeps a library. His father and mother had books and albums of photographs galore. My mother keeps a library. Her mother and father did not. Vis...
There
The howl of a dogRumble of a distant trainMournful hornBlue jay and crow Some morningsIt is not that the words flow,But that they are right enough.
Happenstance
I glanced up from my worklooked out the windowtherejust under Flight DL5471 Montreal to Laguardiahung a Monarchriding the updraftthen gliding on, above the tree...
Cowpasture v. U. S. Forest Service
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy notes that the Supreme Court of the United States has decided to hear Cowpasture River Reservation Association, et al. v....
Present Opportunities
There’s a sense of responsibility to the warm lump of soft cat in my lap which supersedes all other urges to rise from bed or chair. No contest between this c...
West Virginia Socker
My great-grandfather played soccer. The photograph above is of footballers from Valley Head, W. Va., at Conley Run. Another print of the same picture bears the ...
A New Kind of Credit Card?
A while back Apple announced plans to launch the Apple Card. It launched. A new kind of credit card. Created by Apple, not a bank. Issued by Gold...
On Attempting to Determine the Outcome through the Selection of Candidates
Just in from the Well-at-Least-It’s-Not-New-Jersey Dept., New York is redesigning its license plates again. If you are a New York State resident, you have...
Wrong Problem. Wrong Solution.
I intermittently listen to the news while driving, and heard several stories on NPR’s All Things Considered, regarding a raid by Immigration and Customs E...
Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
Sad morning here today. The youngest wondered if the Bigger Sister’s bunny was hungry and went to feed her, then came back to ask if she was dead. Yes, Bunny ...
No Phones on the Field
I have been using my iPhone as a stopwatch, and sometimes for background music, during soccer practice for a while now. Not anymore. Last Thursday one of my pla...
Skipping the Skip-nows
My children and I have been indulging in Screen-Free Week. We have read books, played games, and talked together. A week earlier they were binge-watching someth...
Translation
My daughter told me I should get some face lotion for my dry skin. I thought she would ask why I was crying, but the dry salt of my tears hid among the rough fl...