I meet with a group of clergywomen every couple of months. They’re fun and down-to-earth. Today one of them was sharing about her son, who has a form of autism. “He’s a little quirky,” she said. She told a story of being out with him when he was about 9 or so. They ran into […]

Yesterday in worship during the moment with the children the kids were given apples and asked to give them to the various teachers, principals and other educators out in the congregation, who were invited to stand and be recognized. It took one little 5-year-old a while to figure out what was going on, and by […]

To experience flow, your ability needs to match the task.
“If a novice nine-minute-mile runner attempts to run a marathon in three hours,” sports psychologist Nanette Mutrie says, “the challenge is most likely beyond their capability, so they are unlikely to reach a state of supreme enjoyment, and will probably simply feel anxious and uncomfortable. […]

Went on retreat with the church staff this week, stayed at a cottage on the water. This thing came out while piddling around with my computer yesterday afternoon…?
the voices inside my head:
a poem,
an essay,
a pithy reflection,
but likely not,
clamoring to emerge
tripping clumsily over one another–
there are no right angles in nature
so what am I doing here
bolt […]

“take my daughter to work” days
I.
I teach bible to the moms
but it is they who teach me
this time
for they are unbothered
and unrattled
as she bothers
and rattles
and clings
and whines her way
through Paul’s letter.
II.
in my mind
she
is the little matriarch
of all the children born
this summer.
she
has visited them all,
from the five pound girl who
took us by surprise,
to the ten pound […]

There is nothing like being with a family at the most profound moments of its life–baptisms, weddings, and funerals, or what we clergy sometimes call “hatch, match and dispatch.” I’m not sure why we call it that, other than it’s an example of cutesy insider language that every profession has, or it’s our way of […]

Virginia Woolf was on to something, but I think the scarce commodity for most women (and men) is not private space in which to write, but time. Perhaps we need a sequel: An Hour of One’s Own. It’s the end of a long day, and all I want to do is knit together some threads […]

Just got back from two days at The Beach. (Have you ever noticed how people refer to The Beach as if it’s one particular place?) We did the play-in-the-waves thing, the picnic thing, the aquarium thing, the going-for-seafood thing, and C was just superb. She loved the “wa-wa” and was a lot more fearless than […]

I recently got a very part-time job writing worship resources for a national magazine for preachers. The magazine features an article, a textual commentary on the biblical passage, and a sidebar with sample liturgies for each Sunday in the church year. I think I’m going to enjoy it. Writing liturgy is basically writing poetry, albeit […]

I make an effort to post original content only, but there’s no way I could ever come up with something like this… and why keep it to myself?
After Our Daughter’s Wedding
While the remnants of cake
and half-empty champagne glasses
lay on the lawn like sunbathers lingering
in the slanting light, we left the houseguests
and drove to Antonelli’s pond.
On […]

A few months ago our church hosted a lecture series for the church and the community at large. My role in these lectures was minimal, mainly just introducing myself as associate pastor, welcoming everyone to the church, and getting the program going.
After the first evening’s presentation had concluded, a young woman in the audience who […]

C has been learning how to eat with utensils. She can’t quite scoop the food into the spoon, but if we put the food on the spoon and set it on her tray, she will maneuver it to her mouth with about 65% of the food still on the spoon.
She also enjoys pulling serving spoons […]