“He’s looking at me! Tell him to stop!” “She’s touching me. Ooo, cooteys!” Sound familiar? If not then you are not a parent to two or more kids. Siblings fight. It’s part of the reality of having kids. We love our brothers and sisters, but they also drive us crazy when we are little and […]
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I have heard that camping is good for marriage. I agree. However, in our decades of camping we have encountered a few situations in which an RV had become a small cell for two unhappy partners to endure the company of each other. More often, we have witnessed hundreds of relationships obviously healthy and happy […]
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Pierre Tielhard de Chardin, a French priest and theologian who lived in the first half of the twentieth century, integrated science and theology with the spiritual exercises of Ignatius. One of the concepts of Tielhard is loving the “not yet,” the potential, the future. We love people as they are now, but also love the […]
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Few things are more difficult for two people to do than accept things they don’t like about each other. “Why do you let that bother you?” someone once asked when I complained. I thought for a long time before I realized the answer: I didn’t know why I let it bother me. It did no […]
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There is a new sense of time that can come with age: gero-transcendence, or climbing over, transcending, age. Memories of past events from childhood seem like only yesterday. They are as real now as when they first happened. You can hold the past and present together in a new way you couldn’t before. The veil […]
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Her husband regales the kids with the story of the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes as they drive, much as her dad had told her. They climb the dunes, up and down, then she sits at the bottom with the baby as he climbs up and down, over and over, and beyond, with the older two. […]
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Anyone who knows anything about Shakespeare, knows that his comedies end in marriages and his tragedies in death—not just one death but multiple deaths. I’ve studied King Lear in college and seen other productions. I know how it ends, yet, during this year’s production of King Lear at the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, I found myself […]
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Where is your Temple? Where do you find God? For the writer of Psalm 84, the answer to these questions is easy, the Temple in Jerusalem. This Temple is all of this and more. It was magnificent and beautiful, inspiring awe in all who entered its gates. Psalm 84 Psalm 84 starts by singing her […]
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Honeymoon at Lake Huron. We walk along the shores, swim in the waves, watch the sunrise while sipping coffee. Gulls swoop down looking for tidbits of food. Rays of pink seep through the clouds until the sun bursts through in a flash of glory. We skip back into each other’s arms. Day has begun. Our […]
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This past month, Marriage Matters Jackson closed its doors. I’ve been part of this organization for more than twelve years. Over the years I’ve served on the initial advisory committee, chaired the religion and faith subcommittee, volunteered at many events, and served on the board for seven years. I also wrote two short books of […]
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