Today is Steve Earle’s birthday. I’ve been listening to his songs all day, which is not so different from many other days, just more purposed. I love both his music and his story: he is a living testament to hope and redemption. One of my favorite tunes is “Some Dreams,” which was used as the…
if I had a nickel for every songwritten about how hard life isout on the road singing I’d have enough to buy the record and sing along with the self-indulgenceand understand how the beat of life(kick-drum-karma?) molds a melody out of misery in search of a sing-a-long to the click track of daily existence or…
On Tuesday, December 27, 2005, I began writing this blog with these words: I’ve been staring at the “posting” screen for several days now trying to figure out how to join the world of food bloggers. Since I’m writing from a Mac and I don’t know much about HTML, I’m still not sure about adding…
fifty six christmases and it matters more than ever that Christ is born againin the carols round the treein the sharing of mealsin the gift-wrapped bits of lovein the quiet streets of the cityin the empty chair at the tablein the ache of growingand knowing too muchin the memories that hangon the tree and in…
we have several mangers on our mantle made of materials from ‘round the worldeach a collection of the usual suspectsalong with a contingent of livestock but there’s no food the magi made the effort to bringincense and offerings, but not onecovered dish made the journeythe shepherds too were empty handed on his way out Jesus…
here’s how love comes to town on the back of a donkeyin the womb of a teenagerto a sleepy little townwithout a decent hotel on the smile of a friendin the heart of a strangerwho shares your griefand makes room for it on the whisper of hopein the ear of the darknesscalling out our namesas…
On this longest night, we gathered in our church sanctuary for our annual “Blue Christmas” service, which is designed to offer sanctuary to those who are grieving in the midst of the festivities, no matter what the loss. Ginger had candles across the altar at the front of the church, along with those in our…
penultimate on this tuesday nightwe sat around the tableas though we hadall the night we wantedto eat and drink and laugh and talk and hopewe even had time for pie tomorrow night our prodigal planetwill wander as faras it ever does fromthe light of the sunand then start back what a gift that we canlive…
a midnight clearangels bending near the earthpeaceful wings unfurled there in a mangerlittle lord Jesus laid downcattle are lowing angels heard on highand the mountains in replygloria Deo wander as wonderpoor orn’ry people like youand like me (not I) Peace,Milton
Two years ago today, my good friend David Gentiles died. Losing someone that close brought new feelings for me. Yesterday marked nine weeks since we buried my father-in-law, who was the first of our parents to die. The grief of these days is new to me, but as I sat in church this morning, for…