So I read a lot about simplicity and “living lightly” on the earth. It’s a topic that has financial, environmental and spiritual implications. I’ve pondered in this space the gift and curse that is the iPhone–having the means to organize my life and respond to people and issues as they arise, yet finding it difficult […]

So yesterday’s sabbath time was lovely, with a side of not so good. We went on a family outing to a nearby farm to go apple picking. We learned a lot in the process:

“Field trips” are a fine sabbath activity, provided they aren’t an every week thing. They are nourishing in their own ways, but […]

I will probably keep a log of random thoughts and impressions as this experiment goes on. Here is the first installment, with at times excruciating and mind-numbing details:

First, I changed the name of the sabbath ministry thingy on this blog to make it less googleable.
We had our potluck tonight. We had about 9 individuals or […]

Please continue to vote on the spoonerism thread o’whimsy. I am pulling for fest breed, since I know nothing about shiites, nerdy or otherwise.
I had spiritual direction today, and here is why a good spiritual director is such a great thing:
One of the segments of the day-long pilgrimage on Iona took us from the top […]

unrevised
i’m home, but
i don’t want the pilgrimage to end,
so in the plod of rush hour,
i look around and see not
minivans adorned with little league stickers, not
hummers that make me furious, not
steel machines inhaling their fossil fuels and
blowing code orange smoke rings,
but the people inside, pilgrims on the way
to their sacred everyday places,
they are modest as […]

Keith’s comment on the previous post was timely, since I was coming over here to post a few quotes I’ve run across recently:
“Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God has made you to be. And anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it.” –Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis
“We will […]

C: I don’t feel Jesus in my heart today.
R: That’s OK. Sometimes we don’t.
C: Well, maybe he’s the one making it go ker-thump, ker-thump.
Had Easter dinner this afternoon with The Traditionals, a wonderful family who seemed to invite truly random people to their house. You could tell there was none of that dinner party, “Whom […]

we mulched today—
laid a smelly shag carpet
under the trees, smothered tiny maples
that did the best they could.
amid bushes that flourished
in spite of us, tiny sprouts also
dot the landscape,
ground cover that never took off.
they were supposed to spread their arms, hug the earth;
instead, they spring up,
here, there, but not everywhere.
an avalanche of mulch covers one,
and i […]

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world…
Love someone who does not deserve it.
As the group collected purses and sweaters,
the retired librarian tugged at me.
They’re clearing ten acres behind her house—
single family homes from the low 600s.
One morning, over coffee,
she heard the chains, the phlegmatic grunts of machines,
the roots, ripping […]

Songbird says,
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19, NRSV
As we near the end of the long journey toward Easter, a busy time for pastors and layfolk alike, I ponder the […]