The Spirituality of Walking An Awe-Full (or Awe-Filled!) Experience You who know my habits know that a daily walk or two is a really must-do activity. So David and I take at least one walk, usually around the neighborhood or nearby park, each day – two if we’re lucky. (See my lead photo and the…

The Joy of Wine A Drink of the Gods – Almost as Old as Humankind Itself Some of you know that if I am really lucky, along about mid to late afternoon, I retire upstairs to pray, think, read, and relax at the end of a usually busy and sometimes crazy day. I refer to…

  Knowing God through the Lens of Two of My Favorite Writers: Frederick Buechner and James Martin If you ever happened to wander inside St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in the Museum district of Richmond, Virginia, or into historic St. John’s Church on Church Hill downtown – either of them when I was preaching – probably…

  Learning to Fall … Again and Again David and I enjoy reading books together before bedtime. I read four or five pages out loud and then he reads four or five pages … usually until the next page break. Interestingly most, if not all, of our joint reading experience involves books that I have…

  Making Meaning in Our Lives: Irrational Leaps into the Unknown I don’t know about you, but looking back over my life – from late adolescence to just about now – I have made choices and decisions across my days and years, not based on rational considerations like a cost-benefit analysis, but based on deep…

  Anxious? Depressed? Well, Try Dancing! Or Singing! For many years, usually in the evening, I would turn on the record player – 45s or LPs (that tells you how many years back I’m talking about), or the radio or, more recently, Pandora on my cell phone or iPad. And I would dance – in…

  Never Again … and Again … and Again: The Drumbeat of War “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.” With this line the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, closed a CNN interview on Sunday evening, April 24. More about that later (and see second…

Waving the Flag: A Symbol of a People’s Spirit and a Symbol of Hope for Us All Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, David and I bought a Ukrainian flag online. When it arrived we unpacked it and David asked, “Which color goes up?” Of course we Googled it and discovered blue was up, so we…

Relaxation, Mindfulness, and a Visit with the Past Now the name Herbert Benson might not ring a bell with you, but that bell clanged for me. Dr. Benson died last month at the age of 86. He was a well-known and respected cardiologist at Harvard and a pioneer in the early days of the mind-body…

“My Country, ‘Tis of Thee;” or, It Can’t Happen Here. (Can it?) Years ago – I think it was in the 1930s, during the rise of Nazism and fascism generally – Sinclair Lewis wrote a book titled It Can’t Happen Here (see lead photo). And although it was before my time, I believe he concluded…