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What Joan Told Me
I once had the distinct honor of introducing Joan Chittister before she gave a lecture. For those who don’t know her, Sister Chittister is a Benedictine nun, a fierce social justice warrior, and a prolific writer. Before the program began, I had about two minutes alone with her backstage. I’m not sure where it came…
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One Step Back, One Step Down
I have learned a lot about myself during the Covid pandemic. Mainly I learned things I already knew about myself, but had forgotten. Or I faced things I hadn’t needed to face in a long time. Or I learned how to observe myself doing things. In other words, I gained some more self-awareness. I learned…
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A Greeting, 30 Years Later
I grew up going to a church camp called Camp Cazadero. The first time I attended was in 1982, the summer before I entered 5th Grade. It was marvelous. To get there, you had to drive to Sonoma County, along a two lane road that headed toward the coast, but just before you hit the…
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Sustained Attention
I was on a 3-day retreat with other ministers at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos. “El Retiro” is build on a hill – one of “los altos”? – in the midst of the city. There is a freeway nearby, not to mention Mountain View and Sunnyvale and all the rest of Silicon Valley.…
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Not Needing to Explain Myself
I hope that you have been with a group of people before that you don’t have to explain yourself to. It’s not that you just sit there in silence without needing to communicate, but that the communication is free-flowing and unguarded. I have a group of friends that I have known since I was growing…
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Singing in the Car
While on sabbatical, I’ve stopped listening to the news. I still read the local newspaper (yes, we are subscribers), so I’m not completely out of the loop, but I am intentionally refraining from watching YouTube videos or listening to podcasts about politics or current events. It’s not that there is no value in these things,…
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It’s All Just So Beautiful
Today I drove across the Richmond Bridge and down 580 toward Oakland. It was late afternoon and I remembered a moment I shared with my daughter Sophia about 3 years ago in the car on that same freeway. I was driving and she was in the backseat. It was twilight, the time of day sometimes…
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Did Jesus know the Earth was round?
I found myself thinking about this question today. As a yes or no question, I could imagine people lining up on one side or another. Yes, of course he knew the Earth was round. He was God, afterall, and God knows everything. If he didn’t know the Earth was round, then he clearly wasn’t God.…
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Middle School Girls’ Volleyball
I’ve been coaching the 7th and 8th Grade Girls’ Volleyball Team at my daughter Sophia’s school. Actually, I was the assistant coach because a teacher at the school agreed to be the head coach. She was awesome. A P.E. teacher who played volleyball in college, I learned a lot from her. 20 girls signed up…
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Canoe Man
When I was 18, during the summer following my first year in college, my dad and I took a road trip from Santa Cruz, California to the East Coast. On the first leg, we drove 26 hours to Chicago, taking turns to sleep in the back seat of our 1984 Dodge Aries station wagon while…