Ordinary Time Boredom is a great tool. It is the artist’s tool. I had never considered boredom as being good till reading a book on art that claimed boredom as a tool. Only boring people are bored, I used to think. How could anyone be bored when there is so much to do, so much […]
Read More
Ordinary Time, Valentine’s Day Hearts and flowers, flowers and hearts. Again we water down a saint, St. Valentine, and a word – love! (more on Valentine) Valentine isn’t given a day in the church calendar and yet society has chosen this day in recognition of love. Love is more than hearts and flowers and candy. […]
Read More
Ordinary Time A blanket of snow covers the earth. I am warm and snug in my home, looking out at the white expanse. Eventually I will have to move. Eventually I will have to get up, get going, shovel the walks and the driveway, but for now I am content. White, such an ordinary color. […]
Read More
Ordinary Time What is so wrong with being ordinary? Nobody wants to be ordinary. They want to be different. They may even believe themselves to be somehow different in a mighty hubris. They don’t want to admit that they are just human like all the rest of us. No better. No worse. Just human. It’s […]
Read More
Ordinary Time When I was a child, I remember reading the lives of the saints. They were every bit as good as any adventure story I had read. Some even bordered on horror as I read of saints being tormented by the devil throughout the night. I was grateful not to be afflicted with sainthood, […]
Read More
Ordinary Time Growing up in Michigan, I remember the slogan “Winter Wonderland” depicting Michigan’s winter beauty. We’ve long since given up that slogan for other slogans, but the term remains engrained in my psyche. It is a way to get through drab, dreary cold winter days by focusing on the beauty of snow covered hills […]
Read More
Ordinary Time The dentist has me tap, tap, tap, then grind my teeth as he sought to adjust my bite. It’s a wonder to me how these teeth have to line up so perfectly lest they hit too hard or scrape as the jaw slides, thereby causing pain and deterioration of the tooth. In theory, […]
Read More
Ordinary Time Oh, to be a ground hog, see my shadow and pull the covers back over my head. I would sleep until spring, feasting on the accumulation of fat from the past year. I would wake up a new, skinnier me! No more trudging through ice and snow to work out or starving myself […]
Read More
Ordinary Time “Look to your heart,” the yoga instructor kept telling me as my eyes rolled back into my head while trying to master shoulder stand. “Look to your heart and just do it. Don’t let the brain get in the way.” When my eyes went to my brain, I thought I was going to […]
Read More
Ordinary Time Conflict is a part of ordinary, everyday life. Try though we might, it’s just not possible to achieve a conflict free existence, nor do I think it would necessarily be a good thing. Despite years of experience at conflict resolution, it never gets easy. There is no one size fits all for conflict. […]
Read More
