One of my favorite discoveries, on entering the liturgical tradition, was the celebration of Advent. I was delighted to learn that dark December days and the light of a simple candle were heavy with meaning. In Advent, I found not a nebulous season of festivity ending in the anti-climax of Christmas morning, but a sacred […]
Celebrations
“Celebrations punctuate our year, and our punctuations define us as a people.” –Malcolm Smith The people of ancient Ireland marked their year with eight solar and lunar celebrations. Every six weeks or so, they gathered, performed religious rites, feasted, danced, and held competitions. If a man committed a crime, he could be excluded from […]
A Change of Mindset
Occasionally, in the flood of articles, information, and updates we read online, something comes along that makes a quantifiable difference in our lives. It happened for me some years ago when I read an article about the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. According to the author (whose name and information I’ve […]
The Mess on the Deck
It is a pleasant summer evening, and I lean over the rail on the deck, looking out at the backyard. The air is full of the buzz of crickets and cicadas, and a thin frosting of pink clouds covers the sky. Fireflies rise over the grass. The high branches of the maples and pines stir […]
Discernment Muscles
My son has been reading voraciously for the past couple of years. Somewhere between seven and eight, when we moved into a house where he had his own room, his own nightstand, and his own reading lamp, everything clicked. He went from reading Bob books under duress to devouring Mr. Popper’s Penguins, the whole Narnia […]
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