I had a camera once that could take pictureswith everything in focus, from front to back,each detail crisp, sharp, and identifiable.I can’t do that with my own eyes, as I learned again this week, driving throughDuke Forest, the variegated veil of fall flavorscascading down from the tree tops to street level.I pulled to the side…

Remember when Alanis Morissette told us irony was “like rain on your wedding day” – which is mostly sad and not ironic at all? Well, it’s not raining here in Durham, but I have my own offering of irony: I’ve been all set for a post on Sabbath for several days and haven’t made time…

This came into my field of vision this morning and I thought it too good to keep to myself. From Wallace Stevens — “Ask Me” Some time when the river is ice ask memistakes I have made. Aske me whetherwhat I have done is my life. Othershave come in their slow way intomy thought, and…

I stood one brilliant autumn afternoonat Quincy Market and watched a manjuggle a bowling ball, a tennis racquet,and a chainsaw with the same ease asthose of us who watched drank ourlattes and ate our cannolis; I wonderedhow he practiced – what was it likethe first time he revved the engineand threw the saw into the…

Years ago, I wrote a lyric for a Communion song called “Here’s to the Day” and the last verse says gather in close cling to each othersing to the night you don’t sing alone This has been a day when I have been reminded, again, that life and faith are both team sports. We are…

Dad and I sat at breakfast yesterday and talked about the old hymns that fed our hope and faith in these days. This is the one I have been singing tonight, though not quite David Phelps. O Love that wilt not let me go,I rest my weary soul in thee;I give thee back the life…

it’s not what you know it’s what you don’t knowor what you’ll ever figure outthat takes you out where the wild things grow and makes you wonder what you’ll have to showfor all the days of being devoutit’s not what you know it’s what you don’t know that hints at what grace can bestowas love…

I have a love-loathe relationship with much of the technology that gets thrown at us. I love my laptop and I wish the manufacturers had chosen to make sure they were making a great mobile phone before they added all the un-phone features to it. And I don’t really get the whole Twitter thing. Those…

it’s not the same you know waiting in linewaiting for the phone to ringwaiting (waiting) for the world to change tonight I am not passing timeor fostering impatienceI am waiting for newsNo – I am weighting for newstime is not passingtime is falling in layerseach one heavier than the lasteach one heavy with hopeand uncertainty…

Tonight was a night to remember in the kitchen because nothing really happened. And it was a night I learned from my coworkers. I shared the evening with Mitch, our line cook (and among the best read line cooks with whom I’ve had the privilege of working), and Arnaldo, our dish washer (whom I have…