They had already sung two songs before he stepped out from the ensemble from the Durham Rescue Mission to sing a solo. The small group was made up of men who were clients of the mission rather than staff. They were dressed alike in white shirts and brown ties; most of them set their Bibles…

I spent Saturday with a group from church on a “LifeCraft Retreat,” where we built little boats as metaphors of our life journeys. We all started with the same pieces of wood and a roomful of materials and possibilities and each emerged with small crafts that both showed parts of our stories and set sail…

Thanks, Christine, for the poetry party. fall these are my favorite dayswhen the summer heat beginsto fade into fall’s crisp paletteof expectancy and comfort I want to match the colorswith aromas savory and sweetlayers of flavor and hope thatsustain as the nights grow long and winter hangs on the horizonbarren branches and grey morningsthe chill…

I was looking out Towanda’s Window the other day and saw this: Justice is what love looks like in public – Cornel West The phrase has stuck with me because I’ve kept thinking about what love looks like in public, and what form love takes as it gets lived out in our various relationships. Church,…

Jorge is one of the people I work with who inspires me. He is a dishwasher who does a great job, but that’s not what gets me. Jorge works at both the restaurant at Duke and the Durham restaurant where I work. From Monday to Friday, he works from 7 am to 3 pm at…

I mow the grass not out of conquest,but obligation — even simple necessity:if I don’t, our little dog disappears inthe growing greenery that passes fora lawn. I’m not much of a turf builder.And so I pull-start the machine andbegin traversing the yard, cuttingpatterns as Ella runs ahead, buoyantlyannouncing impending doom to theweeds and daffodils. We…

Some parts of my job come easily for me – the cooking part, for instance. Some parts have a steeper learning curve – figuring out food costs, for one. In order to be profitable, what it costs to buy all the food needs to cost less than a third of what we sell it for,…

Corpus Christi, Texasis bracing for a hurricane;I am fasting, preparingfor my colonoscopy;both I and my birthplaceare being evacuated. Peace,Milton

I got wrapped up in my mind tonight and found myself to tangled to write, so I untangled myself by browsing through some of the music my nephews have shared with me. Here are some folks doing great stuff. Brett Dennen opens “Ain’t No Reason” by singing: There aint no reason things are this wayIts…

The beginning of the school year has meant a move for me. I’m back at Duke, as the chef for a restaurant my boss contracts to run on the Duke campus. We are open Monday to Thursday nights, and then I still work Sunday nights at the restaurant where I worked this summer. I like…