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Celebrating Everyday Spirituality

Sunflower Seeds

Celebrating Everyday Spirituality

Singing Is Good for You–Especially Singing with Others

I like to sing. I always have. As little girls, my sister and I used to sing duets in harmony. Our favorites were “Harbor Lights” and “You Belong to Me.” I sang in the children’s choir at our parish, in our high school glee club, and now in the choir at our provincial center. That’s […]

Plan B

When I ask friends out to lunch, I ask them to pick a second date too. That way, in case something unexpected comes up for one of us, we have another date to fall back on. I learned long ago, when making plans, it’s always good to have a Plan B, just in case something […]

My Friend Judy Moore

Recently I lost another friend. She was Judy Moore. Reverend Judy Moore, an Episcopal priest whose final years were spent ministering in Albuquerque, NM. My friendship with Judy goes way way back to 1951 when we first met in second grade at James A. Garfield School in Willoughby Hills, Ohio. Judy was new to the […]

Ordinary People Doing Good Things

We hear enough these days about people doing mean or bad things: bullying a classmate, stealing from the elderly, driving recklessly, cheating the government, throwing garbage in a river, vandalizing a historic building. People doing bad things often makes the news. So today, let’s focus on true stories about ordinary people doing good things. Food […]

“Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others”

Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others is another inspiring book by Barbara Brown Taylor. You may recall, she is an Episcopal priest who, after years as a pastor, moved into the world of Academia beginning with Piedmont University in Demorest, Georgia. There for years she taught a course in world religions. She […]

Consider the Dandelion…

Consider the lowly dandelion. Is there any other plant more detested by gardeners, lawn-lovers, and golf-course keepers? Just search “how to get rid of dandelions” online and dozens of products come up from highly toxic weed killers (one warns that their product, if not used correctly, can kill bushes or even nearby trees!) to the […]

Widening and Deepening our Human Perception

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a book I was reading, Jennifer Ackerman’s Notes from the Shore. For my June 5th post, I wrote about the “homing instinct,” an instinct so beautifully exemplified in ospreys. Ackerman shares many other facts in her book that amazed me. Here’s another one. Astronomer Harlow Shapely said that human […]

What Is Freedom?

As we celebrate the Fourth of July in the USA, let us reflect on the gift of freedom. What is freedom? I like this definition: “Freedom is nothing else than the chance to be better.” Why have we been gifted with freedom? Only this: to love. We might think, “I want to be free to […]

A Poetry Break…

Recently, Krista Tippett, on her podcast On Being, interviewed Tracy K. Smith, U.S. Poet Laureate from 2017-2019. They both agreed that poetry is more important than ever today when our public conversations are often so “fractious and strident.” Why is poetry so vital? Because poetry gets at “undergirding truth,” not just facts. Poetry can lead […]

Cousins and Other Layers of Love

I was thinking about my cousins lately. Maybe that’s because I recently had lunch with one of my cousins, Peggy. We hadn’t seen each other since her Dad’s funeral not too long ago. It was so enjoyable being with her. She is someone who shares much of my early history and went on to have […]