Emily Dickinson Returns, with a Rocker’s Mom

It’s Mother’s Day, but this will not a Mother’s Day blog; or at least, not one exactly. The culture that surrounds us spews out more than enough material on this tired theme. The person I have most on my mind never was a mother in the regular sense, although she left almost 1800 offspring that live on and on. She also spent a fair amount of time thinking about death, not a very celebratory subject, in the Hallmark sense anyway. … Read More

Go Ahead, Retreat…Oh Wait, Don’t

If I didn’t know better, I might think that just about the whole town where I live (for a few more weeks, anyway) has become virulently non-religious.  Why?  Because there are signs popping up all over the place with this exhortation:  “STOP the Retreat!” A pastor’s wife needs to add a whole slew of new words to the household lexicon – at least I did – and “retreat” is right up there with Most Commonly Heard Episcopal Life Terms (OK, … Read More