Going through his five-year-old son's backpack, a father found a picture of a little boy standing under a rainbow crying. His first thought was, "Oh God, my son is having some serious problems."When he asked his son about the picture,…
At the base of a volcano in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, there is an orphanage. Although Third World orphanages aren't normally festive places, on this day, at this time, there is reason to celebrate: the arrival of a young…
A couple anticipated attending the opening of a new museum exhibit.At the last moment, their childcare plans fell through. They were left with the only option of taking their young daughter, seven years old, with them. They expected that the…
In junior high and high school, we had a well-known bully. And he followed the script, carrying himself like the world revolved around him.He did attend most of his classes, and when not in class, walked the hallways with an…
Changes mess with us. I wish it weren’t so. You know, messes with the tidy (manageable and predictable) script—for our day or our life—that we tote for mental security. You know, about the way life “should be.” But when the…
Everywhere I go these days, people tell me their anxiety is real. About disquiet because of uncertainty. I get it. And many talk about unease, because they see or know people who are very afraid. And I understand that too.“Afraid…
I have a soft heart. And too often, I’m afraid to say so.I have been sitting at my computer for some time, waiting for a Sabbath Moment topic. But in my mind and spirit are two searing images, and the…
“The world feels heavy and I’m not sure my heart can hold it all,” she writes to me in an email, “Please, tell me how to hold it all?”In other words, in our fragile and broken world, how do we…
When violent shocks become a routine feature of daily life—intensified online in an already polarized, anxious and overstimulated society—I can feel powerless, and so, try to protect myself. I am so tempted to close my eyes, to shut down, and…
This morning, the words, “bombs and war”, took my breath away. And I needed not to be undone by the headwinds of dispiriting news.In our morning session, I stood before a group gathered for retreat at Mercy Center in Auburn,…