My apologies for the broken link in the 16 August blog mailing. There was an error in copying the URL. The world — this world, our beloved home planet — and the species that inhabit it have been blessed with amazing gifts: air to breathe, fresh water, food sources appropriate to our needs, oceans teeming …
If you remember, I am starting to prepare for the sabbatical that starts next spring, so I am making “maybe” lists of things to do (or not) before we leave: clearing 4 or 5 dresser drawers and half (at least) of the master bedroom closet; leaving generous space in the pantry and freezer; getting the …
Question: Have you ever (even once) started the day bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (as one of my grandmothers used to say), with a neatly organized to-do list, spent the next eight or nine hours moving steadily from task to task only to reach the end of the day without having crossed one thing off the list? …
Our daughter grew up as a Preacher’s Kid Squared, so she heard her father and me talk more than once at the dinner table about weddings and marriages, and from a very young age she heard us discuss the kinds of questions we asked the couples who came for pre-marital counseling: questions about values, about …
Two days ago, I opened the pantry cupboard in our kitchen and broke into a cold sweat. This may not seem a normal response, but just after Easter next April, my husband and I will leave Denver for his sabbatical – three months of sabbath rest and renewal followed by a month of vacation. Our …
Some backstory: At the beginning of the financial crisis in 2007-08, the ministers of the Rocky Mountain Conference of the UCC gathered for their fall retreat. Conference leadership took an hour to alert us that at least two Conference staff were losing jobs because contributions from congregations (which fund the Conference) had been slashed. In …
The Denver Botanic Gardens does an art installation every year in late spring or early summer. One year it was Chapunga – the work of a number of Zimbabwean sculptors. Another year were the bronzes of Allan Houser. Henry Moore’s large and amazing pieces were featured in 2012. This year, the installation that is creating …
Watching the fireworks from our home on July 4th this year was a surprisingly good metaphor for what feels like the current state of our country. The first Independence Day after we moved to Denver nine years ago, I was startled and delighted and amazed to see the whole sky (well, about 230 degrees of …
When I was visiting my father recently, we uncovered a box full of cards and letters I had exchanged with my mother in the two years after her cancer diagnosis and before her death. It was an unbelievable treasure trove that brought smiles and tears and a strange sense of awe in the re-reading. In …
My mother’s birthday is June 19 – she would have been 85 this year – but her favorite day of the year was the Summer Solstice. On that day, she would traditionally drive to somewhere she could see the sun set into the ocean, and she would drink a champagne toast to the light. One …