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December 2013

December 13, 2013

An Almost Human Happiness

A typical plot complication on reality shows involves the unexpected twist, a challenge that the...

December 12, 2013

Writing My Mother’s Icon

Blessed Santa Barbara, / Your story is written in the sky, / With paper and...

October 2013

October 17, 2013

Honor Thy Mother

It came to me one quiet afternoon, a couple weeks after we were home from...

September 2013

September 20, 2013

Roots Trip to the Castles in My Bloodline, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. A tempest of Winters temper—mine—had blown through the Highlands of Scotland...

September 19, 2013

Roots Trip To the Castles in My Bloodline, Part 1

If you grew up in the Seventies as I did, you might recall a popular...

September 17, 2013

Over the Rhine’s Sound of Place

Guest Post Brian Volck “Somewhere is better than anywhere.” —Flannery O’Connor Early in...

September 16, 2013

Confession: Yom Kippur 5774

I rise with the congregation. I form a fist. They form a fist. We form...

September 13, 2013

Chrysalis, Catacomb, Cloud Part 2

Guest Post Jen Hinst-White Continued from yesterday. Rob goes to bed; I go to...

September 12, 2013

Chrysalis, Catacomb, Cloud Part 1

Guest Post Jen Hinst-White How did I never notice before? An ultrasound room has all...

September 11, 2013

Spiritual Counsel Part 2: Prayer and the Desert

As I wrote yesterday, my spiritual director, Fr. Bill Shannon, had said early in our...

September 10, 2013

Spiritual Counsel Part 1: Barking Dogs

“It’s good that you see spiritual direction in terms of a dog, instead of only...

September 06, 2013

From Luci Shaw to Brother K: My Life with IMAGE

Guest post by Lucas Kwong “Art, Faith, Mystery.” These watchwords have formed the center...

September 04, 2013

Today’s Child Sacrifice

The following will be delivered as a d’var Torah, reflections on the Torah reading on...

August 2013

August 29, 2013

Falling Upward: Don Draper Meets Richard Rohr

Guest Post By Cathy Warner The opening credits of Mad Men have always disturbed...

August 28, 2013

The March on Washington: A Personal Anniversary

Guest Post By Christine A. Scheller “Many of our white brothers…have come to realize...

August 23, 2013

Words for Good and Evil, Part II

Continued from yesterday. “Why is it possible,” asked Richard Feynman a year before he won...

August 22, 2013

Words for Good and Evil, Part I

In the months to come, England’s National Health Service will sterilize a young man with...

August 18, 2013

Can I See You?

The vision test for the Army aviation pilot school application caused great angst among my...

August 13, 2013

Sorting Through the Past

I’ve been cleaning out an attic—not my own—along with drawers, closets, shelves, storehouses, and barns...

July 2013

July 26, 2013

The Truth Told Slant

Every winter I plunge into darkness. As Seattle days shorten to eight hours with clouds...

July 24, 2013

The Poetry of Self-Absorbed Young Love

Until I was thirty-two, I was afraid to think about God. I panicked at what...

July 22, 2013

Saint Linda

Just about every morning for the eight-plus years we’ve lived in our house, the day...

June 2013

June 25, 2013

Pondering Prayer

I had a problem with prayer. It’s not that I didn’t think of God or...

June 24, 2013

Friendship, by Guilt or Grace

In February I published Love and Salt, a book of letters I wrote with my...

June 21, 2013

Scattering the Children of God

According to a psychology professor I read recently, we are hardwired to make enemies. Doing...

June 18, 2013

On Plumber’s Block and the Birth Process, Part 1

Guest Post Recently, I watched a documentary that featured famous Irish writers giving advice about...

June 17, 2013

Looking for a Father

The last Father’s Day card I sent to my father came back to me, returned...

June 12, 2013

Family, Friends, Honored Guests

Graduation season has come to a close now, and the above-said words have welcomed the...

June 05, 2013

For the Time Being

I recently ran into a good friend who’d been battling depression for years. She looked...

June 03, 2013

Spared not Blessed

In the West we have forgotten how the world devours children because mostly when our...