When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the w

Imagination is more important than knowledge. – Albert Einstein I am fascinated by prophets – both ancient and contemporary. The ancient ones such as Isaiah had the ability to both warn of danger and demise AND to spin beautiful visions of the world the way it “ought” to be. The 11th chapter of Isaiah presents a particularly wondrous description of a world at peace. In this world, equality and safety mark this “peaceable kingdom” that is led by a wise master. Predator lie

What a crazy political time it is, this summer of 2013! The Supreme Court of the United States has just gutted the voting rights act making it easier for states to discriminate against minority groups in the balloting process and then on the very next day allowed a lower court ruling to stand that repealed Prop. 8, paving the way for marriage equality in California. It also repealed the federal ban on same-gender marriage (DOMA) thereby granting same-gender couples in state

Hands knead the sprained flesh where rib number five has worked itself out of line and out of order. Ugh. Getting a massage used to be more pleasure and less work. Breathe in . . . breathe out . . . breathe through . . . The massage therapist continues along, digging out the past trapped in my body, like an archaeologist mapping a new site. Left knee cap – Cracked in 1982 while running upstairs to the light booth in Hammond Hall at Rice. Coccyx – Shattered by fall down a mar

The miracles of the church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always. – Willa Cather, (1873 -1947) U.S. novelist, poet and journalist. Growing up on the southern plains in the Texas panhandle, I have always appreciated the insights of Willa Cather. What she describes in such

There is something powerful in ringing bells and most religious traditions have some sort of bell ringing practices. Even those with no religious tradition at all may enjoy the clinking sounds of glasses raised for a holiday toast. Whatever you “have” to do today, see if you can also take a moment to let go of that which no longer serves you in order to make room for the birth of something new. May you be blessed this Christmas Eve! Ring Out, Wild Bells – by Alfred, Lord T

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. For those who aren’t Christian liturgy geeks, it means we’ve got four weeks until Christmas to sing mysterious minor hymns, dwell in darkness, and wait. The theme of this Sunday is often centered on hope. In my life, hope is a slippery thing. It is very easy for me to slip into despair. I like to tell myself that this predilection for hopelessness is because I have a strong grasp of reality. I mean, if YOU knew what is REALLY happeni