As a clergywoman – even one who no longer ministers in a parish – my life is interwoven with symbols and symbolism…with those things that literally ‘bind together’ (sym-bolen, to throw together.) Vestments are symbols; paraments are symbols; chalices and patens and crosses are symbols. The language of rites and sacraments is metaphor (which is …
As we are traveling on this sabbatical, we are using a Tom-Tom (GPS, SatNav) to guide us from place to place. It is working just fine and we are – with very few exceptions – getting exactly where we want to go, with a cheerful voice telling us, “In 200 meters, go right around the …
As we get closer to the actual possibility of planting seeds that will germinate and produce grain and fruit, I have been pondering the reality that we rarely grow anything alone. Life (both inward and outward) is quite literally co-operation, a collaboration that stretches back through generations of DNA and natural selection and family …
We are well into the last month of Samhain. Although the morning darkness will continue for another month or more, the daylight is almost perceptibly longer and Imbolc (the spring quarter) will be upon us very soon. Whether Samhain has brought rest and renewal and refreshment; or a growing sense of peace with the soft, silken darkness; or …
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 …
My last Musings was about relationship and community. May is coming to an end (already!?) and June is beginning; it’s “that time of year” and I am pondering a different kind of relationship, a different kind of community. Since my beloved husband and I are both ordained clergy, we have attended well more than a …
Our travels have brought us to Mesa Verde, one of the truly extraordinary landscapes of the United States. Indeed, it is more than a piece of North American geography and history; it is a World Heritage Site. Our guide explained the World Heritage designation comes not from Mesa Verde’s past, but from the fact that …