28 Aug 2023

Love for Memorial Field

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Private spaces, public spaces — we need both kinds in our lives. While most of us invite people into our homes at least occasionally, we also appreciate knowing that we can take refuge there, spending time just with our family members…or maybe even completely alone. While we may refrain from putting up “No Trespassing” signs, we don’t want just anybody wandering down our driveways and coming into our kitchens. And many of us also belong to organizations or clubs or … Read More
4 Jun 2023

We Can’t All Be Expert Gear-Shifters

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Sometimes a glaring contrast can be the vast difference between the skill level we want and the skill level we have. Yes, we can practice and practice — an instrument, a sport, say — and then often make remarkable progress. Other times, though, if the skill is not something we absolutely must have, if gaining it doesn’t radically enhance our daily lives, we’re wise to shrug off our crumminess, cope with this particular area of mediocrity, thereby freeing ourselves to … Read More
30 Jan 2022

Just Breathe, But Also Know When To Fight

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Like someone with an ear right up against a radio, getting an occasional bit of voice in the crackling, I’m trying to sort out snippets of incoming news. The messages are definitely mixed, if not downright conflicting. “It’s this way….No, it’s definitely the other way.” Gazing outside at the falling snow today, I recall my Uncle Harold, about 50 years ago, when both his own mother and his mother-in-law were visiting during a snowstorm and he kept hearing opposite instructions: … Read More
23 Jul 2021

Astronomical or Just Regular

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Money may not be able to buy you love, but it sure can buy you a ticket to space. And family fame — that will land you a book deal sooner than you can say, “Would you like a spot of tea?” Most of us, though, don’t fly in any rockets, literal or metaphorical, and, if we want to get really good at something, we just practice, practice, practice. And then, the hard truth is, we still may be only … Read More
14 Feb 2021

Some Falls are More Comfy Than Others

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It’s February 14th — about the only day in the whole year when taking a fall, or the memory of having taken one, can be considered a good thing. Why is it, anyway, that we talk about “falling in love”? The image conjures up someone keeling over into some kind of all-encompassing, mushy, welcoming substance; or maybe jumping into a pit filled with big, blue rectangles of foam, as I’ve done once or twice when I’ve taken kids to one … Read More
17 Jun 2019

Post Playoff Packing Up

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Ah, the first half of June— time of fragrant blossoms, gentle breezes, lawns a-greening, birds a-twittering. And, depending on your perspective, either right in keeping with the burgeoning season or completely out of synch with it, the double whammy of TWO Best-of-7 Series (make that plural). Did you watch? I sure did. Having been steeped in athletic activity from a young age, I’m not about to change now. Yep, I’m a pastor’s wife, and proud to be. But when I … Read More
11 Jan 2018

Digging Those Blades Into The Ice, Sometimes Solo

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It’s the New Year, so will it be the New You? Sounds like too tall an order, probably. A better bet will most likely be nourishing our own sense of at-home-ness within ourselves. Sure, we can and probably should do some minor repairs, address our flaws, try to meet a higher standard; but essentially, we’re stuck with our very own personhood. Can we think of new ways to flourish, sometimes depending on not another soul? It’s here that I’ll make … Read More

bishop skiing - mountaintop
25 Feb 2017

Giving Us a Lift in February

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It’s definitely not just another ho-hum weekend, because the amazing discovery of the Trappist-1 cluster — a bunch of new planets circling a kind of sun, out there just a hop, skip and a jump away from us– means we are now on alert for possible news of life elsewhere in the universe. This is big, possibly mind-blowing. Depending on how the story unfolds, we could have some major adjusting to do about our human identity, our various belief systems, … Read More
5 Feb 2017

On Super Bowl Sunday, Mind Your Soup

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On Super Bowl Sunday, or on any other day for that matter, do you prefer to keep politics, religion and sports separate — like food items not touching on a plate—or do you like the mélange of tastes that comes when they’re all swirling around together? Seems to me that there are really good kinds of soups, the broth-based ones with wholesome ingredients that bring comfort on cold days; and then the other kind that could, with the right ingredients … Read More
6 Oct 2016

October Devotion

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It’s October, the Red Sox are in the playoffs, Big Papi is heading out in a blaze of glory. What better time to reflect on the amazing and occasionally incongruous proximity, at least some of the time, between sports and religion? Any thinking person knows that one realm—the one containing huge stadiums, celebrity players, non-stop action, winners and losers, fans who go crazy for their teams, huge sums of money— is completely different from the other, sacred one. And yet, … Read More

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