My work team is celebrating its sixth anniversary this spring, which sent me on a spiral of investigation about why iron is the traditional 6th anniversary gift, and how it is the element towards which both lighter and heavier elements converge, and how the stars themselves burn out into iron in the end. This has […]
Years ago, I had the chance through work with Habitat for Humanity to meet President Carter and attend one of the Sunday school classes he taught in Plains, Georgia. The sermon that day was from Peter, and President Carter’s theme was “even though” – the idea that faith is worthy even though – or […]
I was rushing to work the other day, somehow already feeling behind though the sun had just risen. As I quickened my pace, hitching my heavy bag up on my shoulder and adjusting my headphones so I could hear the CFO’s conference call comments, a flash caught my eye. It was a HAWK! A […]
You cant have anything till another thing shows up. – Cormac McCarthy, The Passenger A tree can’t be a forest. A book can’t be a library. A drop can’t be an ocean. A note can’t be a song. A person can’t be a community. Here’s to the other things, and […]
I’ve been mulling over the differences between awe and wonder lately, in part thanks to this recent terrific conversation between Krista Tippett and Dacher Keltner. Their discussion stayed with me because Keltner’s work highlights that the most common form of awe is not the Grand Canyon or the Redwoods, but humans awed by one another. […]
This week has included preparation of a triumphant birthday cake made entirely of potato products for my dear nephew (tots, mashed, chip, and fry), and another made entirely of soft pretzels, croquembouche-style, for my dear sister. (There was a third, composed of fresh vegetables, but no one wants to claim that one.) So much […]
This week I happened upon a video of a big cracked rock, all dusty and bashed up and completely unremarkable. Sooner than I could scroll past, the rock split in two, revealing the most glorious sight. Inside, it was gleaming and lustrous and endlessly deep. What looked like an ordinary boulder was really a […]
Things I appreciated this week: The flash of a cardinal in the bare lilac tree. The joy of running into an old friend on the street. The man in the park who warned me about the coming cold snap. The finding of my warmest hat, just in time. The goofy texts from my nephew, and […]
This coming week marks St. Brigid’s Day, welcoming the early spring. In New England this means that the sun will peek over the horizon before seven for the first time in months, which is indeed a hopeful sign. What better time to share a blessing from the extraordinary John O’Donohue, who links longing and belonging […]
The word “compromise” has always been tinged with weakness to me. After all, the whole idea is that each party is giving something up, and surely that is a close cousin to losing. But this line of reasoning is a slippery slope, leading to the idea that common ground is somehow lesser, a watered-down version […]