I was visiting a neighboring parish recently and was admiring their beautiful landscaping. A dogwood was blooming in delicate pink. There were pockets of flowers in red and purple. As I was surveying the beauty, I noticed one, brilliantly yellow tulip standing on its own near the dogwood. It was...
As Mother’s Day approaches, I face it with my usual dread. Though there are so many mothers that we can and should honor (I love you, Mom!!), there are so many people for whom this is a hard day. I am at the stage in life when many of my friends are having children. There are the sonogram...
As Christians, there are many things we say out of habit. We say, “God bless you,” when someone sneezes, even if we do not actually mean to invoke a blessing on the person. We say, “Peace be with you,” in church without necessarily thinking about what offering the peace...
This winter on Long Island was particularly rough. We went months without seeing the grass – months! I have friends on Facebook who live all over the country and I remember seeing their pictures of kids playing in the grass in March, and I was so jealous. That experience of hunkering down...
This week I have been thinking a lot about love. It started when I discovered a short film called, “Blind Devotion” by the Jubilee Project. The film opens with a playful, young couple who seem lovingly devoted to one another. Unexpectedly, the wife starts to lose her vision and her...
In the last couple of weeks we have seen quite a lot of change in our infant. She is finally getting up on her knees to crawl instead of doing her “commando drag.” She is pulling up to a standing position and happily standing for a while. She is trying and enjoying new solid foods...
Today is a day I have been longing for for at least a month. The church bells are playing, the sun is shining, the temperature is rising, and I can see bits of grass under mounds of snow. In some ways, the dreariness of winter has been most appropriate. We are in Lent after all, so...
This Lent, I am reading the book The Way of Tea and Justice by Becca Stevens with a book group. To be honest, I am not sure it is a book I would have picked up on my own. I am not super passionate about tea; I am more of a coffee drinker myself. Tea always seems to be so labor intensive. When I...
I was talking to a parent recently about the challenges of raising children. She reminded me of an awesome interview by Louis C.K. with Conan O’Brien. The interview itself is funny and, as fair warning, quite crass (do not watch it with impressionable ears nearby – the...
This week I had one of “those” days. I had a funeral at 10 a.m., which I had specifically scheduled early in the day so that I could run over to Clergy Day with the diocesan clergy, hoping to fit in a few hours with colleagues. Of course, the day before it snowed and iced, and the...
