When I was a child, I often spent the weekend with my maternal grandmother, my Nanny. After my grandfather died, when I was 7, I think...

I am delighted to have begun serving as a "bridge pastor" for a local ELCA congregation. This simply means that in the time between the...

I've been told that I have no poker face. Apparently, no matter how hard I try, my emotional responses, what I am feeling about a...

One of the realities of our particular life circumstances is that we are without a faith community. Wow. Saying that makes it feel even...

The lovely collection of poems, How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, (edited by James Crews with a forward worthy of the...

May 31, 2023 The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth This story, found in Luke 1: 39-56*, tells the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus,...

I’ve recently been drawn/called/pulled to put down roots. I’ve never lived in one place for a very long time. Ever. Let’s call the...

It’s unlikely that any words I would arrive here with could fully describe the deep, deep gratitude I have for my family. These...

We had a visitor just outside our porch this evening, looking down with wide eyes and singing their particular song. The other feathered...

I was lucky enough last fall to teach the Introduction to Worship class at Trinity Lutheran Seminary (Dr. Joy Schroeder was on...

All of my life I’ve been lucky enough to have wise elders who have come alongside, providing wisdom and perspective and care and...

I joined the Ted Lasso bandwagon late in the game. We just started watching it a couple of months ago. We are caught up and, along...

No one likes criticism, I suppose, but those of us who grew up on the receiving end of it with regularity might shy away from it more...

Today’s gratitude is simple, which isn’t always how I feel in these very complex, disoriented days. From time to time we have deer who...

To move from offering gratitude for being in the same place as our grandchild, to today’s subject necessitates that I note that they are...

It’s true that with twenty + days left in this gratitude practice, I’ve not written about some of the most obvious things that fill me...

Almost a week’s worth of gratitude to fit into one post. It’s not that I’m not grateful. It’s not even that I can’t name that for which...

Today I went to a conference where I knew almost no one in the room. I’m an extrovert, but even so, this felt a little bit like being...

Each day on my list of things and people to pray for, I remember the people of Ukraine. What started over a year ago as a daily headline...