How Do You Respond When You Hear Something New?
Please receive her, and she will tell you some new things. Let her tell her story without interrupting her, and give close attention, and you will see she has got the lever of truth, that [...]
The Purposeless-Driven Life
A few months ago, I told my spiritual director I couldn’t see any clear purpose to my life. He responded with “Who says life has to have a purpose?” Well. Ever since my writing took [...]
The Bible’s Hidden Gems (or, Planning a Trip to Philippi?)
The Bible is hard to read. Really, really hard. A good friend reminded me of this over dinner last week. We’ve never discussed religion in more than 20 years of acquaintance, so she surprised me [...]
Distress (and a Potential Lesson) in the Age of Trump
My wife and I were having one of our occasional “how are things going” conversations, where we look beyond “how was your day” to the deeper currents that run through our lives. She’d felt out [...]
Is Forgiveness What We Think It Is? (Part 2)
In the last post I sketched out some of my ideas on what forgiveness isn’t. It’s not forgetting in the sense of erasing betrayal from our memories. It’s certainly not returning to our adversaries to [...]
Is Forgiveness What We Think It Is? (Part 1)
A few months ago I posted a piece about several upheavals in my life—betrayals, broken friendships, whatnot—and my inner work around them. “This work has been very difficult and very good,” I wrote back then. [...]
Trump-Ukraine from a Writer’s Perspective
I wasn’t planning to write about the Donald Trump – Ukraine kerfuffle. Goodness knows, there’s plenty of that on the airwaves already. But my work experience caused me to notice something that I haven’t seen [...]
How Much Privacy Do We Need?
Every year, like many other people, I get birthday greetings from people on Facebook. Birthday greetings are lovely, of course: it’s wonderful to know people wish you well. But my brain makes them a challenge [...]
From a Deep Inner Stillness
We, as solitaries…allow the Light penetrating our lives to shine out as through stained glass windows and awaken others to the beauty, hope, and goodness that surrounds us. —Karen and Paul Fredette, “A Word from [...]
What Did You Learn from “Mrs. Wilson”?
A few months ago my wife and I watched “Mrs. Wilson,” a recent installment of PBS’s Masterpiece. For me, it was extraordinary: a story so honest and penetrating you could use it for lectio divina [...]