advent journal
I’m writing tonight between our two Christmas Eve services. The early one at five is described as the family service so that folks know it may be a little louder than the ten o’clock service, which is candle light and Communion. For the first time in three Christmases,
advent journal
without you if I quote the words you can probably say them with me “you've been given a great gift George: a chance to see what the world would be like without you” but the gift of without that most of us get comes wrapped as grief the
advent journal
It turns out that the shortest day of the year is also the birthday of a number of people who matter to me, and two of them live Guilford. Ginger and I went to celebrate them and then stopped on the way home to celebrate some time together. It was
advent journal
The Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut is a building full of stories. The building itself goes back almost one hundred and fifty years when it first opened as a theater. When the original owner died a few years later, so did his vision for the place and the
advent journal
the work of the people the liturgy of our life together begins with breakfast or a walk certainly a coffee some days the invocation is offered by NPR or TODAY a podcast or an old song we exchange the reading of our calendars, listing our obligations and appointments we go
advent journal
For my birthday Ginger gave me The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams. I did not know of the book. From the back cover I learned it is Adams’ debut novel--at least in print--and the premise is a teenage girl who is working in a library finds a reading list
advent journal
The final game of the 2022 World Cup and the annual Christmas pageant at church both kicked off at ten o’clock this morning. Since I was only able to record one of them, I saw the pageant in person. As is the case in many churches, the drama is
advent journal
hippo, hooray I've done my share of writing about the weight of the world but here are a few weightless words of joy for a day spent walking talking eating laughing building memories in a town where none of us lives yet we created a space of belonging
advent journal
Ginger and I have spent the last couple of days working to get packages in the mail for our family, who are scattered about the country. Yesterday afternoon while Ginger was at work, I was home baking cookies to pack and send (and let Rachel have a few), which meant
advent journal
weather report when I was in high school dad told me to be a weatherman “you can be wrong everyday and you never get fired” I walked to coffee this morning in cold sunshine said the sky looked like snow this afternoon and sent the schnauzers out in the rain
advent journal
I drove someone in town to their doctor’s appointment in North Haven today. Last week, Ginger became aware that someone in town needed a ride to their chemotherapy appointment and other family issues meant he didn’t have one. My flexible schedule made it easy for me to play
advent journal
I have struggled to write tonight. I have been sitting at the screen for a couple of hours and have three or four beginnings to poems that should not be finished. Somewhere in my search for something, I remembered a poem I wrote many years ago--when I was teaching high