FOR THE JOURNEY How ordinary is “Ordinary Time”? As it turns out, not very, if you think of ordinary as ho-hum and routine. Instead, suggested one writer during Advent, it’s the time when we begin our journey “from the crowded stable to the empty tomb.” That’s an extraordinary hike. Did you ever wonder why we […]

FOR THE JOURNEY As we trudge into 2020, a year that promises to be just as rancorous politically as the year we are ending, I find myself thinking about forgiveness. Not forgiveness as a meek act of acquiescing to evil, which is what our national climate might persuade us to believe. But forgiveness as a […]

FOR THE JOURNEY I grew up near a small town that had a big Labor Day weekend celebration. For a farm kid, it rivaled Christmas for excitement. There were carnival rides, barkers hawking games, a big parade, an alumni dance at the local ballroom, contests of all kinds. The streets were closed to traffic, and […]

FOR THE JOURNEY Over 60 years ago, a young African American boy named Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi after an encounter with a white woman in a country store on a dusty road on a hot, humid Southern day. Till, from Chicago, was visiting relatives and had stopped to buy bubble gum. Emmett […]

FOR THE JOURNEY My elderly aunt was a walker. After she retired, she would hoof it around our small town to visit friends or rise early to walk downtown to the coffee shop for breakfast. Sadly, her body stayed in much better shape than her mind, and when dementia overcame her, she was placed in […]

FOR THE JOURNEY So, you want to save the world? Yeah, so do I. At least, most of us want to do good, some giving that will make a dent in the world’s woes, something from which we can see positive results. And sometimes in my daydreams I envision a rather large dent. I know […]

FOR THE JOURNEY Near the end of “Thirst,” one of my favorite volumes of Mary Oliver’s poetry, she speaks to the Lord in the epilogue: “Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my heart.” When Oliver died in January 2019, I felt a great loss, as if […]

  FOR THE JOURNEY Lent beckons, and that’s a good time to dust off my gratitude journal. If you want a run-down on all the ways gratitude can help you, visit happierhuman.com/benefits-of-gratitude. Over 26 studies have chronicled how gratitude can help you sleep better, experience less physical pain, spend more time exercising, improve your mood […]