Our Christmas Eve service, like many around the country, is a service of Lessons and Carols. It is also a family service, so there is the rumble of restless little ones underneath all the singing and silence. It’s awesome. This year, Ginger made a point of asking a number of our children and young people…
The story below is one I wrote several years ago. I read it this morning at church. I offer it to you tonight. A Faraway Christmas by Milton Brasher-Cunningham As we gather together on this Silent Night, To sing ‘round the tree in the soft candlelight, From a Faraway Christmas, from time…
Yesterday on my break at the computer store, I walked over to Barnes and Noble to get a cup of coffee, which might be described as my regular routine. The line was about five deep when I got there, which didn’t bode well for my fifteen minute recess, but I decided to chance it since…
come . . . sit in the dark with me and tell the truth reach deep in the pockets of our souls for scraps of hope and wonder come . . . look up at the storms of firefly stars flinging their light our way lay back on the blanket of dead leaves and sleeping…
One of the things I miss about living in Marshfield was learning to tell time by the tides. The tide came and went twice a day, but never in sync with the clock. The tides felt a rhythm rather than a ticking. They followed the moon, the earth’s turning, the breathing of the oceans. In…
Throughout Advent, I have been collecting a soundtrack to get me deeper into the season. Tonight, I was greeted by two songs at our annual “Blue Christmas” service — one I sang and one I heard — that helped move me along towards the manger, sadness and all. Tonight, I thought I would share them…
Today has been a sad day. My dear friend, David Gentiles, died three years ago today. Three years later, this day lies between the anniversary of the death of my father-in-law, Reuben, who died a year ago last October and January, which will mark the first anniversary of Lola, our Schnauzer who died after…
I saw Joy dressed as a postal worker tenaciously attempting to infect everyone in line up against Impatience in the form of a woman still in her workout clothes complete with jewelry and then I stood behind Clumsy or so she seemed — dressed in faux fur and fumbling at the self-serve machine I was…
I love my wife for walking out of church this morning. She began our worship, you see, by using a song they sang on the 2012 Freedom Ride to help us figure out a way to allow us room to deal with our grief over Sandy Hook in our service. So we sang, I woke…
One of the gifts I got for my birthday was time. It’s something I always ask for and Ginger takes my request quite seriously. After a marvelous birthday breakfast together at Guglhuph, a wonderful German bakery and restaurant here in Durham, Ginger and Rachel, my mother-in-law, left me there with over three hours of time…