What if every word we sayNever ends or fades away,Gathers volume gathers weigh,Drums and dins us with dismaySurges on some dreadful dayWhen we cannot get awayWhelms us till we drown? Poet Malcolm Guite's words ring a solemn warning while post-election analysis, rife with bliss and blame, weighs the heart. There is so little grace in … Continue reading Whoever You Are and However You Voted, You Are (Still) My Neighbor
"Joy" is a bright, simple word. It tugs on the heart. The mere mention of joy reminds us of a deep lack in our lives. We live without joy more often than we'd like to admit. So I don't have anything against the political planner who came up with the notion of employing "joy" as … Continue reading Joy: God’s Utterly Uncontrollable Glimmer
When I'm talking with friends about a book I enjoyed, I sometimes catch myself sheepishly confessing, "Well, I listened to it," as if listening didn't count as reading. I still believe that reading a printed copy of a book, pen in hand, is the most satisfying and enriching reading experience and that reading a book … Continue reading Five (Plus Five) Favorite Audible Narrators
My father passed away on Christmas Day. Even though he was 89, the hospital call informing us that he was "letting go" was a sad surprise: it wasn't his long struggles with COPD and atrial fibrillation or even the suspected prostate cancer worrying him that ultimately caused his death. A stone lurking invisibly in his … Continue reading A Story Doesn’t Always Go the Way You Had in Mind: Thoughts on Faith and Suffering
Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson's beloved comic strip, once depicted Calvin in a philosophical stance, opining to his stuffed tiger that “today’s TV-reared audience is hip and sophisticated.” “This stuff doesn’t affect us,” the impish Calvin continues. “We can separate fact from fiction. We understand satire and irony. We’re detached and jaded viewers who aren’t … Continue reading Favorite Reads of 2023: Four Unexpected Delights
When it comes to news consumption, I mostly have two kinds of friends. The first backs away from any conversation about current events. “Oh, I don’t pay much attention to the news,” they say with a dismissive wave of the hand. “It’s too political for me.” I know what they mean. Many of us are … Continue reading Books Before Newsbites: Curating the News with C.S. Lewis and Dorothy Day
I’ve been humming Gordon Lightfoot tunes since his passing last month. I mean, a little more than usual. My brothers and and I latched onto Gordon Lightfoot’s special genius as teenagers when visiting our mom’s side of the family in California the spring when Sundown topped the charts. We then learned that our beloved Uncle … Continue reading Lesser Known Lightfoot: Glimpses of the Singer’s Spiritual Side
When I was a young mother trying to finish a Bachelor of Arts in English, I relished my Tuesday evening class at the local college. The English department head, a kind woman with twinkling eyes and exacting standards, required us to read a book a week and come prepared to spend the first 30 minutes … Continue reading “Go and Be Human” with Close Reads: A Podcast for the Incurable Reader
I feel as if I've read the first three chapters of Genesis a zillion times. As a young adult I read the Bible through each year, starting with Genesis. Then I began following the lectionary, which leads us through the Scriptures every three years. That's a much more meditative pace, but Genesis 1-3 is so … Continue reading Uncentered: How Adam and Eve Reveal the Truth about You, Me and the Middle Tree
“One year from now, you are likely to be much the same person except for the people you meet and the books you read.” I don’t remember who told me this back when I was young but I never forgot it; it's helped me track my reading year after year ever since. Lately the Goodreads Reading … Continue reading Fiction, News Addiction & The Genesis of Gender: Standouts from 2022’s Reading
