Seen
I saw a mother breastfeeding on the train. She covered herself as the child took what she was freely giving. A sacred sharing. Her tilted downward gaze, the shape of her eyes, the curl of her lips, glowed as if transfigured. Time stopped for one eternal moment, and on that specific day, in that specific place, I […]
A Way Through
If life is one big classroom, the subject for today is “resourcefulness.” It’s a story of mismanagement, misbehavior, and misdirection. A story of making a way out of no way. A story of grace.* Scrambling, scrounging, and soon-to-be-broke, the crooked manager comes up with the perfect plan. In a bold act of slight-of-hand, he gets caught. The […]
The Burning
I’ve come to start a fire… —Luke 12:49-56, The Message In the days when a hearth fire kept the family alive, our ancestors learned to bank the fire before they went to sleep, pushing the logs and coals together to preserve the slow burning. It was important to keep it smoldering through the night, ready to […]
A Soul’s Worth
The direction she gave was exactly as my mother taught, so I knew it to be a perennial truth, even though I was five years old. Our kindergarten teacher, Ms. Olive Garrett, took Richard by the hand, whispering in his ear, showing him how to share the wooden blocks he was hoarding. I was the student […]
