It’s Christmas Time, late December, when capitalists celebrate Consumerism, Pagans celebrate Winter Solstice, and Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. During Christmas Time I sometimes remember the day I was out shopping with my three small children in tow. They overheard another shopper swear, “Jesus H. Christ!”, and one of the kids asked me, in…
Read More[photo by Comfreak] any Octobers ago, I said to myself, “This is as good a time as any.” I pulled out a 5×8 blank book that was stashed among my office supplies, and began “My Book of Blessings.” The first blessing I wrote was “For Christina’s suggestion that I record a daily blessing, Thank You.”…
Read MoreOn her way out my front door my friend turned back and said, “Take care.” I use that phrase all the time. Sometimes it is a caution, meaning be careful, drive safely, don’t do anything foolish. Sometimes it is a wish, may things go well for you. Sometimes it means be good to yourself. Often…
Read MoreI have been sorting through memorabilia. Again. Still. Five generations worth of photos, newspaper clippings, report cards, dance cards, grade school art, certificates, ticket stubs, merit badge cards . . . you know – memorabilia. This week I found a large black-and-white photo of my brother, Jay, tall and handsome. He looks to be about…
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It seems that my May blog post on “stillness, silence, and solitude” struck a vibrant chord with readers. I’ve heard from several folks yearning to “go on retreat,” but then wondering how one prepares to “do” a retreat? One SOS email came from a woman wanting to bail out of a retreat that ended up…
Read Morey favorite chair is one next to the large window overlooking a dozen flower pots and three bird feeders. At least twenty different species visit those feeders, and I love getting to know them and learning their behaviors. I want to know the names of all my avian visitors. (I think it’s…
Read MoreIn emails from friends, in blog posts, in discussions over tea, more and more often lately I’m noticing certain words: Stillness Silence Solitude In poetry and books of prose, in conversations at the grocery store, in magazines, there they are again: Stillness Silence Solitude Is it just that I happen to notice…
Read MoreFour years ago when I first began this blog column, it was with reluctance, and solely for the purpose of promoting my not-yet published book, Meeting in the Margins: An Invitation to Encounter Society’s Invisible People. It was one of those things, like ”having a Facebook presence” and hiring a publicist, that folks in…
Read MoreIn last month’s post I described sitting in a sixth-floor hotel room watching the construction of a building in downtown Seattle. Three weeks later, I study that same building, but from a different angle. This time I observe from a bed on the fifteenth floor of Seattle’s Virginia Mason Hospital. My different perspective started…
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