Thank you. Just thank you. ”My work is loving the world...” Mary Oliver begins her poem, “Messenger.” It is worth looking up for a Thanksgiving reflection. There is too much “prosperity” … [Read more...]
Swallowing it Whole
A video version follows the text In ancient Israel, and reportedly still today, careful distinctions were made between people who belonged and did not belong, including between a “foreigner” and … [Read more...]
In this world and of it
Texts for Preaching: “Breakage” by Mary Oliver John 17:6-19 Scroll down for sermon video Don’t you love how descriptive that Mary Oliver poem is? She takes us right to that place on the … [Read more...]
A little more about the sun…
From the waterfront in Geneva, the sun seems to rise from behind Vintosa vineyards. On a clear morning a finger of yellow or pink fire curls over the slope on the east side of Seneca Lake. Light from … [Read more...]
Opening the Mind with a New Lens
Some teacher, sometime along the way, likely soured you on poetry. It was done by making you read stiff poems, written in an alien parlance with old-fashioned metaphors, and then insisting you explain … [Read more...]
Mary Oliver, Thank You
Mary Oliver, thank you. The simple elegance of your poems exquisitely mirrors what is miraculous in nature – that out of seemingly simple elements placed in fortunate proximity and serendipitous … [Read more...]
Poetry
Billy Collins, former United States Poet Laureate, has a humorous poem (“Introduction to Poetry”) that I read as an explanation for why poetry is repugnant to so many people: …But all they want to … [Read more...]
Life
Life crawls upward and weeps into the light through one small pore even while bursting through the hard wood of the bark in another place. Late last summer we cut down three pine trees in the yard … [Read more...]
Playing Cute with God, a reflection on “The Journey” by Mary Oliver
Link to Journey: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/356684-the-journey-one-day-you-finally-knew-what-you-had It is true you know, the only life you can save is your own. Maybe it is because of what … [Read more...]
A Wednesday Rant: Loving Judas
Archive Rant Adapted from a presentation delivered to a 12-Step Worship in 2012 “We do not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious.” (C … [Read more...]