These two lines greeted me in an email from a dear friend today: Go to the edge of a cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down. — Ray Bradbury My first connection was to my favorite Guy Clark song, “The Cape” — he’s one of those who knows that life is…
In our Adult Confirmation Class that has met during Lent, we talked about writing a statement of faith. We also discussed how inadequate the verb believe is as a translation of the Greek word for faith, which is a verb. Trust would be a better choice, as far as English goes. With that in mind,…
One of the joys of living in the South is a big front porch, and one of the traditions of our porch is we populate it with Boston ferns every Spring, leaving them up until well into the fall (or winter) until they make our place look a little like Boo Radley’s house. A week…
it’s the name I found when I went looking for what happened on Wednesday of the Week we’ve labeled Holy — using capital letters as though there were some sort of scripted suspense instead of a simple day of preparation for Passover, for supper together, and the selling of one friend by another. No cloaks….
One of the highlights of my Lenten season has been my repeated listening to the new Jackson Browne tribute project, Looking Into You. Most of the songs have been a part of the soundtrack of my life for as long as they have been public record and I love to hear him sing them, still…
the last one on the plane and he took the last seat between me and the young soldier on his way home the old man had white curls under a pork pie hat, thin black glasses, a white shirt under a tweed sportscoat his pants fastened where waists used to be he aimed his conversation…
for the chance to return to streets I once knew an opportunity to talk about things that matter to be on the receiving end of unsolicited encouragement for the chance to lose myself in the crust of a tomato tart to find myself serving at someone else’s communion rail and return home with the pockets…
I have spent the day traveling from Durham to Fort Worth where I am speaking at First United Methodist Church tomorrow. They read my book during Lent and asked me to come and share Communion in worship and dinner tomorrow night. I have spent the evening eating and talking with new friends from the church…
I would love to tell you I had an epiphany in the middle of lent: an earth-shattering, horizon-bending, blaze of understanding and insight that changed everything for me. My day, however, spelled out in much smaller steps, turns of phrase, incremental graces: a call from a friend, homemade marinara, sunshine on my lunch hour. My…
there are nights we sit down to dinner because we need to eat. then there are nights — like this — where we sit down together because we need each other long before we even take a bite, feeling as crushed as garlic, hoping to find a taste of the patience that built the sauce,…