My travel plans changed this morning. Ginger is not yet over her bronchitis and, well, for several reasons it makes sense to wait a week to go to Birmingham, not the least of which is Ginger and Ella can go with me. About the time I was deciding whether or not to go today, the…
I’m taking the blog on the road this weekend. One of our reasons for moving south was to be closer to Ginger’s parents in Birmingham. Her dad has Alzheimer’s and her mom has her hands full. They also have Lola and Gracie, our Schnauzers, who making things better there so much that Rachel refuses to…
The path from the restaurant to my car leads me across the heart of Duke’s West Campus five nights a week. Most of the time, not too many folks are out walking when I am, but tonight the Quad was rather well populated with students all standing and facing in the same direction and staring…
As I was driving to work yesterday, I called Chef because I had a couple of questions. We talked about some of the changes I’ve been making at the restaurant at Duke, and I got to tell her I noticed the check average had gone up a dollar, which means we’re making some progress toward…
You will write about the sermon, right? Maybe on Monday? What it was like to mount the pulpit once again. How long has it been?(Gordon, in a comment on my blog) The last time I preached was October 1, 2006. It was World Communion Sunday, the fifth anniversary of the beginning of our bombing of…
Genesis 12:1-4; John 3:1-17A Sermon for Pilgrim United Church of Christ, Durham It’s written matter of factly in our scripture passage this morning: “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you,” as though God and Abram were having…
Curious George has gone to Africa. Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Bush is making a whirlwind tour of The Largely Ignored Continent, visiting countries not in crisis where he can point to what he has done to help them. Yes, my cynical sap is definitely rising. Kofi Annan has been in Kenya for a couple of…
In getting to preach this Sunday, since Ginger is away on our church’s women’s retreat, I’ve been thinking about Abram and Nicodemus, the two stars of the lectionary readings this week, and tonight that’s led me to thinking about invitations. As one who grew up Southern Baptist, invitation is a loaded word, tied to the…
from the beginning, I supposethe point of Lent was to dosomething, or do without,for forty days – but when theystarted counting, they skippedthe Sundays (“Little Easters”)so folks could catch theircollective breaths, or findforgiveness, or just rest. I knew one person whocalled Sundays and Saintdays “windows in Lent,”as though we needed freshair and light to seep…
I had no idea who Barbara Crooker was until a few days ago and now she’s made The Writer’s Almanac twice in the span of a week and her poetry is speaking to me. Here’s the one from yesterday: In The Middle of a life that’s as complicated as everyone else’s,struggling for balance, juggling time.The…