Perhaps like some of you, in the fall, my weekends are filled with soccer. I’m not talking about professional futbal on television, I’m talking about the 9-and 11-year youth soccer variety. Yesterday was no exception. When my younger son took a free kick from the corner (not a corner kick, mind you), the ball sailed through the air and landed right in front of the goal. But there wasn’t a man there. What were the Flaming Hot Cheetos to do?... Read more
It’s fine to say you love your neighbor as yourself, but what does that actually look like in practice? How do you actually live out your ultimate rule? As one theologian reminds us, “to follow only the ‘love God” commands is to only half-follow the Ten Commandments. In order to love God properly, one must properly love their neighbors, even the neighbors with whom one disagrees.” UGH. How then do we love our neighbors? One of my favorite nonprofit organizations... Read more
Have you ever felt desperate for thirst? So hungry for food that you would have done anything to get food into your belly, stat? Just about a year ago, a friend of mine decided that to celebrate her 50th birthday, she would invite a handful of girlfriends to trek up a really tall mountain with her. Although I would have rather celebrated the occasion with a fruity drink by an ocean in Mexico, I said yes to the adventure of... Read more
Can I tell you a short story, dear reader? It’s a story of remembering, a story of childhood, a story of camp. — But for the small, antiquated sign on the side of the highway, you could easily miss the turn-off for camp. Once you passed the Dairy Queen and drove through the towns of Boring and Welches, you knew you were getting close. Pass the hardware store, you’d gone too far. I remember becoming so transfixed by the Douglas firs... Read more
Have you ever felt so desperate for something, you’d do anything to make desperation go away? Last month, my boys and I embarked on a two-week road trip through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, and even a tiny slice of Montana. We camped. We stayed in guest bedrooms and an RV and a run-down motel by the side of I-80 in Winnemucca, Nevada. We ate more fast food than we probably should have, but we also drank healthy amounts of chocolate... Read more
It’s that time of year again: it’s time to talk about tomatoes. A year ago, I stood in this pulpit for the first time and talked about rest, about the sabbath, about waiting on God. But I also talked about tomatoes, because even though we’d just moved from one side of Oakland to the other, I held high hopes for our scraggly, barely-survived-transportation, potted tomatoes. Several of you came up to me afterwards: I grow tomatoes too, you said. It... Read more
It was just another Sunday by all outward accounts: I preached that morning in San Rafael, at the Episcopal church where I’m on once-a-month preaching rotation. That afternoon, my husband and our boys headed to the A’s game, while I walked a block and a half to a neighbor’s backyard for Garden Club. A couple hours passed. When I then walking home from Garden Club with a couple of neighbors, my phone rang. It was my husband: he probably wanted... Read more
As often happens in the summer months, we had family in town this last week. My sister and her two kids flew down from Washington state for cousin bonding and auntie-together time and general family shenanigans. But just before they left for the airport, my six-year-old niece told us how it was going to be. “Listen up! We’re going to have a parade!” Sammy shouted. “We’re going to play marching band! Here, grab and instrument. Let’s go!” If you’ve not... Read more
Last Saturday, I gathered with a few of my neighbors in the backyard. As often now happens at Garden Club, we gather in one garden initially, but then we migrate from one garden to another, to see one another’s places and sometimes get something only their yard can provide. We’d trapsed over to one neighbor’s backyard because she promised the rest of us lemons. Seeing as I have a lemon tree that hasn’t yet produced the fruit I so desperately... Read more
Things are not always as they seem. A month or so ago, a friend texted me: I have a really random question for you, she said. Go for it, I replied, wondering what really random, out-of-the-blue question she had for me. She proceeded to ask if I was growing any pumpkins in my garden. Her godson, whom she was going to visit in late July, LOVED pumpkins more than anything else in the world. But grocery stores didn’t tend to... Read more
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