If you have ever dropped off someone at the airport, you know the drill.  Many times, we don’t bother to park when we take our friend or loved one to the airport.  Oh, it’s not that we don’t love the person or wish him or her a safe journey, or want to hold their hand… [Read More]

The Scottish writer, William Boyd, once asked, “Do we change every time we have a new encounter? Are we endlessly mutable?”  He goes on to say, “I think these are fascinating questions: it’s a rich vein to tap, and I don’t think I have exhausted it fully yet.”  An encounter is defined as a chance… [Read More]

  It is a way for many of the poor in Bolivia to make a living for their families.  In the city of Potosi, mining is a primary source of employment.  But the work is terribly dangerous. A boy beginning in the mine at age 12 may only expect to live until age 22. Mining… [Read More]

Like many of you, I moved around a lot as I moved into adulthood.  At one point, I counted approximately 11 different moves—north, south, east, and west, from one place to another.  Each time, the boxes would be packed; each time I tried to remember what had helped me to feel settled and more “at… [Read More]

So the story goes like this – after dying simultaneously, three friends went to Heaven and the first thing they did was orientation and they were all asked the same question, “when you are in your casket and your family and friends are mourning you what would you like then to say about you?” The… [Read More]

Do I have God by my side? Do I have God on my side? Is God for me or against me? At some point in life we will ask this question or some form of it.  Sometimes it is when we feel completely flattened by life, or deeply misunderstood, ill at ease in our skin… [Read More]

Forget for a moment what you know, or think that you know, about peacocks.  Many years ago, as a beginning teacher, I lived in a 70’s style Dutchmen camper for about six months.  The camper was only about 15 foot long, if that.  It had several amenities like a table that converted into a bed,… [Read More]

Today, on Palm Sunday, Christian congregations all across the world will re-enact Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem during the festival of Passover and at the beginning of what we now celebrate as Holy Week.  For some of us, it is a time to joyfully and loudly proclaim our Hosannas, wave our palms, and to praise the… [Read More]

Have you ever had a bitter argument over something relatively trivial? Have you ever stood in the middle of Home Depot with your spouse arguing about the kind of tile you’ll purchase for the bathroom, or gotten huffy when your partner says that you’ll be spending the holidays with your in-laws?  Have you ever become… [Read More]

Can’t you just picture it?  There is Martha slaving away in the kitchen, the hair on her arms probably singed from the hot cooking fire, and then racing out to the local merchant at the last minute to get some more olive oil, or whatever.  Can’t you see her breathless and scattered, trying to spin… [Read More]