lenten journal
light matters I stopped at the sink to rinse out my coffee cup at the very instant that the rising sun shot anticipatory flames of color from below the horizon, igniting the clouds with incendiary hope for just a minute . . . . Before I could call you to the window the fire
lenten journal
I didn't write over the weekend because I made a trip back to Durham, North Carolina to take care of some business and see some friends. I am grateful that the necessity of the former offered the gift of the latter. Since I had some things that needed
lenten journal
Uncle Howard and I met for breakfast again this morning, as has been my lenten custom thus far, and he woke me with these words: Again and again, we are impressed with the fact that little things can make big differences. A little act of kindness at a moment of
lenten journal
I read some more of Howard Thurman’s Deep is the Hunger on the train to New York this morning, and found myself trying to imagine what he sounded like by the tone of his writing, which has a centering nature about it. I called my friend Kenny tonight, who
lenten journal
Bryan is one of the folks who was a part of the youth group at University Baptist Church in Fort Worth back when I was Youth Minster. He mentioned in a post that today marked the thirtieth anniversary of the release of U2’s The Joshua Tree. In a comment,
lenten journal
palm reader I’ve been staring at my palm: the little litany of lines that runs from wrist to thumb, the deep-rutted roads like poorly-planned highways across a desert of aging skin— dry riverbeds: canyons carved by age and action, crossed and connected by the lesser lines, faded reminders of
lenten journal
Today has been grey and damp here along the Shoreline, as they call this part of Connecticut. As I lave been reading and writing, I have also been listening to songs that have been a part of my soundtrack this winter--some old, some new; each one providing a necessary note
lenten journal
Howard Thurman was my traveling companion on the train to work this morning, and he greeted me with these words: It is small wonder that all religions that are ethically sensitive place a great emphasis upon the corrosive effects of pride upon the human spirit. . . . The most obvious basis for
lenten journal
While the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it must always be shared. There isn’t any other tale to tell; its the only light we’ve got in this darkness. (James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues” quoted in
lenten journal
A good twenty years ago, I was sitting in my car at a traffic signal on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, waiting for the light to change so I could cross the bridge over the rail yard and back to our home in Charlestown. I looked up to see a billboard
lenten journal
My day started with jolts from both my morning coffee and, then, these words from Howard Thurman: The will to understand other people is a most important part of the personal equipment of those who would share in the unfolding idea of human fellowship. It is not enough merely to
lenten journal
I was a history major in college because of the professor who taught my Western Civilization course my first semester at Baylor. I’ve told this story before. I walked into Wallace Daniel’s classroom expecting to be told, once again, who won what war and what it meant for