The smell of ginger and cinnamon filled our house yesterday. Hannah, our daughter, was home from her clinical rotations and was making ginger cutout cookies. She got the recipe from a cookbook given to her many years ago as a Christmas present from her Aunt Robin. She’s always loved to bake. I helped her finish…
Friday will be our daughter Hannah’s birthday. Before she was born we called her banana because her boy name was going to be Ben, and her girl name was Hannah. We just combined the two potential names. Often, I still call her banana. There is incredible power in being the one to name another person….
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. Isaiah 35: 1- 2 The words on one of my Sierra Club calendars stated, “Nowhere else on earth is geologic time so exposed as in a desert.”…
Tomorrow the eighth graders at Lincoln Park Middle School will have a science exam on the water cycle. I sit in on third period science and I’ve learned a great deal about water over the last few weeks. For example, did you know that our water, all the water that ever was, is over 3…
On Wednesday I began Bible study at the county jail as I always do by asking the women gathered in the program room the question, “How’s the weather in your soul?” It’s a great way to gage the energy in the group. Will it be a sunny or stormy session? Last Wednesday I added another…
The trees are showing us there is beauty in letting go. I read this quote somewhere just before a Sunday morning hike with Tim, my partner, a few weeks ago. We decided be part of the congregation in the woods and hike to Bean and Bear Lake near Silver Bay. We attempted this six plus…
Like you my thoughts this week have been with family and friends living in Florida. We have been grateful to be able call or text learn that they are safe. One of my high school friends, Janell, living in Naples had to evacuate with her two elderly cats. She is fine, but not sure when…
“This then is salvation”, mystic Meister Eckhart wrote, “when we marvel at the beauty of created things and praise the beautiful providence of their Creator” I was able to sit a while and marvel at the beauty of creation as Tim worked to get this and other photos of Green Falls. The week before school…
Ringing our campsite at Sawbill Lake were tall white pines. At night around the campfire, you could look up at their magnificent branches creating a canopy over you. Through this canopy the stars shone bright and the call of a loon echoed across the lake. It was truly breathtaking. In the morning I went to look…
On Monday morning I sat for a while on a hill filled with blueberry bushes. The bushes were lush with their bluish-purple fruit. I didn’t have to move very far to drop my handful of berries into the cardboard flat I was sharing with Tim. It reminded me of Moses and his burning bush because…