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 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 […]
Dignity – July 4, 2022
“Perhaps the more superior we believe ourselves to be to creation, the less like God we become. But if we embrace shalom—the idea that everything is suspended in a delicate balance between the atoms that make me and the tree and this bird and the sky—if we embrace the beauty of all creatures, we find our […]
Known By What Is Absent
Suffering is not a sign of being punished by God. At the other end of the spectrum, keeping oneself free of all suffering is not a sign of pleasing God. The Galileans who suffered under the cruelty of Pilate, Jesus says, are no worse sinners than the rest of us. Suffering happens. Rain falls on […]
