This post on the gift of grief was first published five years ago after the death of my stepfather. It remains relevant, especially in light of the deaths our world has experienced from COVID 19. If you are one of the many people missing a loved one this holiday season, I hope this post helps […]
Read More
My favorite images of heaven and hell come from C.S. Lewis in his books, The Great Divorce, and the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle. Those in hell choose hell. They become smaller and smaller and further isolated from others. They are but specters. In heaven, everything is bigger and more […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
In a world full of noise and activity, Psalm 46 reminds us of the importance a being still and listening to our God. Our Noisy World In his book, The ScrewTape Letters, C.S. Lewis has the devil, ScrewTape, giving instructions to his disciple, Wormwood, on how to lead humans astray. When Wormwood comes up with […]
Read More
I believe in the sun, even when it’s not shining. I believe in love, even when I don’t feel it. I believe in God, even when he is silent. Some claim this is an Irish saying, others that it had been written on a wall by a Holocaust victim. Whatever you believe, this is a […]
Read More
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Puck, Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream, Act. III, Sc. II What fools indeed! We think ourselves wise, when we are not. We think we don’t need God, that God is the invention of feeble minds. A fool, according to Webster, is a person who lacks sense or judgment: a jester, […]
Read More
A bird came down the walk, he didn’t know I saw; he bit an angle worm in half and ate the fellow raw. In the Garden by Emily Dickinson. In this short poem by Emily Dickinson, she dispassionately observes the reality of garden life. Birds eat worms. That’s just the way it is. It strikes […]
Read More
Sleep is truly a precious gift. I always feel better and ready to face the day if I get a good night sleep. If I toss and turn all night, I get up tired and already behind. I never catch up. The writer of Psalm 4 is blessed with sleep. Restless Sleep There is nothing […]
Read More
Ordinary Time – Season of Stability “To pray is to dream in league with God,” according to Rabbi Abraham Heschel. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, book three of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, there is an island where all of your dreams come true. At first the travelers thought this would be a wonderful […]
Read MoreWhen my children were little, I remember calendar countdowns to Christmas where they would open a “door” every day during Advent that would reveal some aspect of the season. Antigua is full of such doors. You never know what might be hiding behind each one! There are long rows of buildings with non-descript doors that […]
Read More
