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memoir

liturgical yearmemoirspirituality

Abide with Me

The year wanes in darkness, at least here in Michigan. Much snow and ice this year. It’s hard not to brood, especially after a year that brought so much sorrow and loss in my circle of acquaintance. A dear colleague, dying suddenly and too young…
mm
December 28, 2013
memoirsilly

Sin and Wrath in My Backyard

Every time I work in my yard, I feel as if I’m living out metaphors. Weeding? Obviously a metaphor for rooting out sin. Pruning? A metaphor for suffering, through which God often purges… our sin. Mowing? Well, you have to keep the grass cut and…
mm
August 10, 2013
memoir

“Danger: You Could Die Here in Paradise”

I know that important things have been happening in the news this week, but I don’t care because: I’m in Hawaii. Been here for almost two weeks with my wonderful partner, Ron, celebrating 25 years of marriage. We are giving ourselves a much-needed and extravagant…
mm
June 29, 2013
memoirspirituality

Unfinished Business

I suppose I have simply gotten used to unfinished business. As more academic years slide past and pile up behind me, I have less a sense of closure in May than a sense of constant motion. Even this year, when two of my own children…
mm
May 18, 2013
liturgical yearmemoirUncategorized

February Blahs

If for some reason you wish to study that peculiar state of human existence called “the blahs,” I suggest you begin in the third week of February in Michigan. It’s been winter for as long as we can remember here, and we still have a…
mm
February 23, 2013
memoir

House Blessing

This week we had good news: a buyer for my parents’ home, after only thirty days on the market. A miracle. Mom signed the purchase agreement on Tuesday, and we’ll close by the end of the month. So now I must say good-bye to my…
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January 12, 2013
memoir

Here’s What’s Cookin’

I have recently become the reluctant chief curator of an entire houseful of my parents’ stuff. This summer, Mom and Dad moved into an assisted living facility, and now my brothers and I are faced with emptying the home they built and moved into almost…
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August 11, 2012
memoirspirituality

The Resurrection of the Mind

During worship services this Easter season when we say the Apostle’s Creed together, I naturally attend especially to the words focusing on the Easter event. “On the third day he rose again from the dead,” we proclaim. And in the section on the Holy Spirit,…
mm
May 5, 2012