I light the first candle of Advent. We have no wreath. This is our first Christmas in the evergreen forests of Northern Michigan, and bringing branches inside seems redundant. Besides, there hasn’t been time. I’ve been coughing and wheezing since I caught a late September cold I can’t shake. We have to wake before the weak winter sun rises to get our daughter to school. The roads are slick and icy and the commute into town takes twice as long... Read more
Today’s post, an excerpt from Pieces of Someday: One Woman’s Search for Meaning in Lawyering, Family, Italy, Church, and a Tiny Jewish High School, is continued from yesterday. In my twenties, it was Holly Brown I longed to be. We two were medical lab techs then working at UNC. Every morning she’d sashay to her bench, flicking her Farrah Fawcett mane: “Good mornin’ y’all.” As jasmine-gardenia perfume gusted from Holly’s curly halo, the male techs would look up from their... Read more
Today’s post is an excerpt from Pieces of Someday: One Woman’s Search for Meaning in Lawyering, Family, Italy, Church, and a Tiny Jewish High School. The classroom door blew open as I packed my briefcase to go home. A cold gust of air rushed in, blowing the papers from my desk, chasing red and gold leaves across the threshold so they swirled and settled at my feet. Kalindah whirled in with the weather. With black-sweatshirted arms, she gave me my... Read more
We’re very proud to announce that Image, the sponsor of this blog, played a central role in the publication of a wonderful new book, God For Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter, which has just been released. Co-edited by Image editor Gregory Wolfe and Image board member Greg Pennoyer, God With Us features meditations for every day of Lent by some of the most highly-regarded spiritual writers of our time, including Richard Rohr, Kathleen Norris, Ronald Rolheiser, Luci... Read more
A typical plot complication on reality shows involves the unexpected twist, a challenge that the credulous competitors never saw coming: The next leg of the race will occur underwater, in an eel-ridden cove, says the host; the next round of the bake-off will require the incorporation of mountain oysters in a rendition of Crepes Suzette. The idea is simple: the greater the skill, the greater the capacity to overcome. If there were a reality show writing competition (imagine that), the... Read more
Blessed Santa Barbara, / Your story is written in the sky, / With paper and holy water. December 4 marked the feast day of St. Barbara. An early martyr, St. Barbara announced her faith to her pagan father by having three windows—a sign of the Trinity—cut into a wall of her private bath. It is said that the torches St. Barbara’s father used to torture her would extinguish themselves before they could be pressed against her skin. My mother, also... Read more
Presence to others: The sense of our presence to each other increased on the day the students in my freshman honors colloquium on the Sabbath observed a secular mini-Sabbath. That day, designed by the whole class, included a number of Sabbath appropriate activities: no technology; natural and candle-light instead of fluorescent lighting; festive attire; food (bagels and cream cheese, of course!); song; private meditation; expressions of gratitude; and communal text study. The text? This, by Wendell Berry, from A Timbered... Read more
Guest Contributor We’re proud to announce that Image, the sponsor of this blog, played a central role in the publication of a wonderful new book God For Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter. Co-edited by Image editor Gregory Wolfe and Image board member Greg Pennoyer, God For Us features meditations for every day of Lent by some of the most highly regarded spiritual writers of our time, including Richard Rohr, Kathleen Norris, Ronald Rolheiser, Luci Shaw, and Scott... Read more
Guest post by Stuart Scadron-Wattles Troubadour. The word conjures up for me an image of a medieval minstrel, someone pale and languid for love, lute in hand. But in his recent post on Image’s 25th anniversary, Greg Wolfe cites Ezra Pound’s use of the word, evoking a more active vision—and one closer to the etymology: a troubadour is someone who finds something. Or perhaps discovers it. When I first began working at Image, I began asking people how they encountered... Read more
I spent fifteen months in South Korea once on a military base we knew would be one of the first targets of the North Koreans in event of attack. They were hard months. I was time-zones away from people and places that I loved. Our tiny base was located on the edge of the city of Ch’un Ch’on in the Gangwon region, famous for the Han and Soyang Rivers and a number of lakes and small islands. It’s a destination... Read more
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