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…
This photo Tim took reminded me of Mary Oliver’s poem, Summer Day, especially the part where she writes, I don’t know exactly what prayer is I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll…
This coming Sunday I will lead worship at Pilgrim Congregational Church while Pastor Carla Bailey is on vacation. It will be the first time I pray publicly since retiring from Peace Church in January of 2021 after 30 years of ministry there. I’m surprisingly anxious about it. I have also been thinking a lot about…
Fourth of July festivities were postponed in Duluth due to the foggy, rainy weather. In so many ways this was fitting after the news of the last few weeks. We are a nation fogged in by Supreme Court decisions, January 6th hearings and mass shootings. It feels like we have lost our way. Instead of…