advent journal
One of the cool things about Guilford is a biannual event called GreenStage Guilford, which is four or five days of various live performances around town. This year, one of the spinoffs was a periodic Open Mic at The Marketplace, a local sandwich and coffee shop. I signed up, of
advent journal
incremental this shortest day was spent contemplating two long-lived lives alongside of sons and spouses caught in the anteroom of unraveling that opens into grief I had no answers I hardly had comfort I had only presence and a few words a few forgettable words in the midst of discussing
advent journal
Two quotes found me today. The first is from Meister Eckhart, quoted by Christian Wiman in Zero at the Bone: Only the hand that erases can write the true thing. The second is from Jason Isbell, quoted in an excellent article by Taylor Brown in the Bitter Southerner: Giving other
advent journal
poetic license I feel like a metaphor staring at a white screen not knowing what to write a week before Christmas or saying I spent the day driving through driving rain and wind that wreaked havoc and never turned to snow but it’s not the whole story I met
advent journal
I preached about joy this week, which helped me as we get closer to the solstice and the daylight drips down to its shortest appearance. Joy is easier to recognize or feel than it is to preach about, but I gave it a good shot. _________________________ I amused myself as I
advent journal
A little whimsy for a December evening . . . marshmallow farm here’s the thing many of us live near marshmallow farms without knowing they are rarities events rather than ongoing projects farms of fancy marshmallows mature stealthily hidden in fields of hay and are flash harvested to find them whole before
advent journal
My birthday gift this year was Burt Burleson, my most enduring friend whom I have known for almost fifty years. As a third-culture kid who moved around most of my life, I lost track of those I knew in my childhood and adolescence. Burt and I met in the fall
advent journal
The emphasis for the second Sunday of Advent is peace, or in our version, just peace—not in the sense of only peace but of peace informed by justice. The scripture passage was from Mark 1 and described the appearance of John the Baptist. As I said in the sermon,
advent journal
A quick note: I am playing a bit of catch up with my Advent Journal because I picked up some malware that was sending people spam messages when they tried to get to the site. That is all corrected now, thanks to the good folks at Dreamhost, but it has
advent journal
nourishment over lunch I looked back at my marginalia from my morning’s reading we must align our functioning with those we depend on for life to be sustainable weighty words for one sitting at the bar at doody’s waiting on a wedge salad when I gave my order
advent journal
I love learning new words, so today was a good day. I began reading If You Should Fail: Why Success Eludes Us and Why It Doesn’t Matter by Joe Moran, who is one of my favorite writers. He also authored my favorite book on writing, First You Write a
advent journal
For thirty years or so I have written every day during Advent (or tried to) as a way of focusing my heart and mind on the season. For the last fifteen or sixteen years, those musings have found their place here on the blog. This year marks my first Advent