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Not Exploited, But Emptied
Today I woke up thinking, “Who really knows how to do Palm Sunday?” After my mind ran through various possibilities, I ended up worshiping with the Episcopalians. When I arrived, an usher standing at the door of the sanctuary handed me a thick pile of paper and directed me to the courtyard. People smiled politely […]
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Africa 10 Years Hence
I took my last sabbatical in 2012, while serving as the Lead Minister at The First Congregational United Church of Christ of Colorado Springs. I had applied for a Clergy Renewal grant through the Lilly Foundation and received it. An exciting day when a check for $40,000 arrived at the church office! The driving question […]
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A Singing Sermon
Last Sunday, I went to church. Well, truth be told, it was online, but I showed up nonetheless and felt like I had been there. I had intended to attend in person, but I got the time wrong and by the time I figured it out it was too late to get dressed and make […]
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The Day I Die
Someday I will die. I will die on the beach with its salt scent in my nose. The flies that were swirling orgiasitically upon some rotting kelp will catch a whiff of me and will shift over to attend to my passing. I will die with wet feet covered in sand and with seagulls squawking […]
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Canasta
One day when she was visiting, my Aunt Jeanne taught me and my sister how to play canasta. We were in elementary school at the time, probably 4th and 6th grade. We sat around the dining room table at our house on Laurent Street. I’m pretty sure my parents had told us we needed to […]
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The “You” Turn
Recently I realized that I spend a lot of time thinking about God and calling it prayer. My preferred mode of prayer is to walk and talk to myself. It’s been that way ever since I was senior in high school. That year, I had Leadership at 7:00 a.m. and then a free first period. […]
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Beckoned
I did not create myselfDid not decide to show myself upon the EarthYet here I amThe birthmark on my right arm looking like a dwarf planetMy hamstrings as tight as the day is longI don’t know how I got hereOr maybe I doI got here with you Following the same trail of stardust and DNAArriving […]
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Percolating Coffee
Writing Prompt: “Tell me about your relationship with coffee.” Coffee has been there my entire life. I have a scar from when I was age 3 or 4 and I reached across the breakfast table to take something from my sister and I knocked the percolator pot onto my left forearm. My mom rushed in […]
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Stick Fort
I’m taking a writing course with Natalie Goldberg. Her method is to get you writing, to keep your hand moving across the page, to ignore the “Monkey Mind” that tells you that you have nothing to offer, and to heed the “Sweetheart” that tells you to just keep going. A big part of the course […]
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A Pleasing Aroma
Today would have been my grandmother’s 98th birthday. Her name was Marion Betty Kline Johnson. My mom’s mom. To be honest, I don’t know a whole lot about her life but I have strong memories and impressions of her. She smoked. A lot. When I was in college, I visited her at her apartment in […]
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