One of my favorite field trips as a boy was going to Stinson Beach and seeing the life that thrived in the tide pools. Around the large rocks that dotted the Northern California coast, these “pools” would form that were inhabited by sea anemones, star fish, barnacles, and other mysterious life. These pools of life … Continue reading Navigating the Divide: Part 7–Sometimes You Have to Wait for the Tide to Go Out
There are a lot of religious people right now that seem genuinely disturbed that other religious people are becoming just like everybody else. And in lots of different ways: in their sexual ethic, their political priorities, their vision of what it means to protect life. And while these are important concerns in their sacred texts, … Continue reading I Pledge Allegiance: Part 2—Just Like Everybody Else
Everyone tells us that the hardest part of the diagnosis is all the tests that you have to run before treatment. Each test promises a restless night of sleep, a wondering if things are actually worse, questions about whether the next step is to administer chemo…or comfort. Brutal. There’s a phrase we tend to use … Continue reading The Goodness of Grief: Part 3–Let Me Tell You About My Other Carbon Footprint
To date, my wife and I have had only two houseguests that we would have considered challenging. From the moment they entered our home, all they did was eat, keep us up at night, and constantly demand our attention. Never helped with the dishes. Never said thank you. In fact, for the first year, they … Continue reading Older than Dirt: Part 6—The Ten Commandments…Aren’t
If you wanted to make peace with a nearby tribe in the ancient Near East, it usually required spilling a lot of blood. I’m not saying that this should make sense to us now, but somehow it did make sense to them then. Instead of spilling each other’s blood, they would take a few animals, … Continue reading Older than Dirt: Part 5—Try Not to Step in the Blood
I don’t know if you’ve noticed lately, but it seems that a lot of powerful white men seem pretty fragile lately. Whether they be in political institutions, or religious ones, they sure are presenting a lot of insecurity. And we all know what that looks like: defensiveness, anger, subterfuge, control, big cars and bigger armies. … Continue reading The White Man’s Fear
This morning I woke up feeling like I had been in a car accident. It happens sometimes, usually after I’ve been doing something active. All this is new since I turned forty a few years ago. And it’s terrible. What’s worse is how it affects the rest of who I am. When I experience a … Continue reading Let’s Talk about Steaming Piles
Many times when I ask someone about their spirit-life, the response that I get has to do with how often they are meditating/praying, how much they are giving, how often they open and read their sacred texts, how consistently they gather with their spiritual communities. Very rarely do they mention the double-pepperoni Hot Pocket they … Continue reading Spirit and Soil: Part 10—Sleep is Underrated
It is estimated that nearly a million Tutsis were systematically extirpated in Rwanda by the Hutu in the 1990s. 300,000 of those being children. Machetes and hand grenades were the weapons of choice. On children. All this in a country that was considered to be the most successful mission field for Christians in the 1950s. … Continue reading Spirit and Soil: Part 9—Your Dirt is Spiritual, Too
I am not a fan of these polar vortexes. The cold is brutal, for sure. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is all that wind. Recently, a friend who is part of my faith community mentioned that she loves the wind. Honestly, I had never met anybody who loved the wind. I … Continue reading Some Thoughts in the Wake of the Polar Vortex from Hell