When we lived in New England, one of the staples in my day was listening to a show called The Connection, a call-in show hosted by a man named Dick Gordon who had a marvelous way of drawing people into conversation and making connections for those who both talked and listened. One morning, he was…
I went to work today with great expectations. Sunday night I had fun at work. About three weeks ago, we began trying a new thing on Sunday nights because they are usually very slow. We now do a “Sunday Night Special” that I serve from a buffet in the dining room: one meat entrée, one…
When Ginger calls us to worship each Sunday, after the announcements, she says, Take a deep breath; now let it out.Breathe in the breath of God;breathe out the love of God. As we stood in the spring sunshine this morning, our palm leaves in hand, I could see the faces of people as they inhaled…
on the road home the miles feelfaster than those on the roadout of town – my body respondsfrom muscle memory, my mindworking like a pace car,knowingwhat to feel with each passingbillboard, how long to wait,how to titrate the anticipation.familiar roads are shorter roads the road from here to resurrectionis mapped in my mind (and myheart),…
I walked the neighborhoodtonight to The Green Room,our neighborhood bar,“serving Durham since Prohibition”in a small square buildingwhose green walls are as infusedwith smoke as it is with stories.Beer and basketball were my menutonight, as others shot pool andplayed table shuffleboard,each of us speaking to the otheras we crisscrossed the roomlike billard balls on green felt.Michael,…
Two unconnected things crossed my path today and I’ve been sitting here for the last half hour thinking about how they are connected. The first came my way through Jimmy, who served as a conduit to connect me to another guy talking about the fiftieth anniversary of graphic designer Gerald Holtom’s creation of the Peace…
Since this is spring break at Duke, the campus restaurant has been closed and I’ve been working back at the restaurant where I started so I could earn my paycheck and also let Chef take her kids to Disney. I’ve loved being back over there. I like the menu (it’s fun to cook), but mostly…
I broke my promise, or at least my practice. I missed writing the last two days, even though my commitment was to write everyday during Lent. The combination of the move, trying to get the phone company to get wifi hooked up at our new home, work, and sheer exhaustion conspired to the point that…
We moved into the house today for real. For the first time in eight months, we don’t have a Pod in our driveway. The new place is stacked full of boxes and furniture several wonderful folks helped us carry in. In a few minutes, I’m driving up to Greensboro to pick up one of my…
The lectionary passage for Sunday is John 11, the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. In these days when the flow of life runs counter to my finding time to write, I chase words like a salmon trying to get upstream. Though the gospel accounts don’t say so, reading it through my eyes…