Like most folks who work in the arts, I hate auditions. Spend a little bit of time with an actor, singer, or dancer and you’ll get a wagon-load of horror stories under the category “auditions”. It’s not much fun to be on the “other” side of the audition process either, sitting for hours watching terrified humans parade before you trying to show you their very best under lousy circumstances. The horror of it as a director/music director/producer is that you know almost inst

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

This past Sunday was in the midst of Memorial Day weekend and in between all the grilling, drinking, graduations, and festivities, I spent some time thinking about freedom. It is a regular part of the vocabulary when talking about sacrifices made by members of the American military to speak of the “fight for freedom”. And I am grateful for their service and faithfulness to our nation. Still, there are other ways to “fight” for freedom. In my sermon at Mira Vista United Chu

On any given evening, the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, like any first-tier orchestra, are capable of playing beautiful music. But there are times when the context of a concert affects the performance and turns a lovely evening of listening to good music into a cherished memory. Last Saturday evening at Temple Sherith Israel, the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, after three weeks of being on strike, played in a way that I will never forget. As a gift to

Happiness depends, as Nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose. – William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet and hymnodist I never cease to marvel at human diversity when it comes to happiness and suffering. Despite all contrary indications, some of the happiest people I have ever met had little “reason” to be happy. Ironically, some of the most miserable folks I have ever met had the most going for them. It is also true that two children raised in the same fam

The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. – John Milton (1608-1674) Want to change your life? Change your practice. Want to be loved? Change your heart. Want the world to be different? Change your mind. But don’t expect anyone else (or your church or your family or your community or your whatever) to fix you or change things to make your life better. Our grasp of heaven is always in our hands and we are in the hands of God whose

When did “Christmas” arrive for you? Or did it? Was it last night during a candlelit “Silent Night” or when you first laid eyes on your grandchild this morning or . . . For me, “Christmas” arrived just after the evening service. After Silent Night, I walked outside into the parking lot to await any folks who wanted to stand with their candles and sing a few more carols. As a sort of “extend the joy” kind of thing. Well, it was cold and my coat was in the car. No gloves (

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

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. – Jimi Hendrix, rock guitarist Throughout scripture, we are called over and over again to love. And indeed we do love. We love our families. We love our country. We love our comfort. We love holidays. We love our things. We love our success. But do we love God? Do we love God more than these things? When we truly learn to love God, we cannot help but love our neighbor too and the world shi

God will find a way to let us know that God is with us in this place, wherever we are, however far we think we’ve run. And maybe that’s one reason we worship — to respond to grace. We praise God not to celebrate our own faith but to give thanks for the faith God has in us. To let ourselves look at God, and let God look back at us. And to laugh, and sing, and be delighted because God has called us God’s own. – Kathleen Norris in Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith Being