So we’re camped in what is most likely the best campground in the entire country, a desert oasis in the middle of Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. We’re surrounded by stark canyons and eroded buttes, a landscape desperately dry and hot. But in the little valley where we’re camped there runs a perennial river, the Fremont, and the grass grows lush and green and the cottonwood trees tall. A herd of mule deer ambles through the valley, completely fearless.... Read more
For the garden is the only place there is, but you will not find it Until you have looked for it everywhere and found it nowhere that is not a desert. –W.H. Auden, “For the Time Being” Read more
The finest quality of this stone, these plants and animals, this desert landscape is the utter indifference manifest to our presence, our absence, our coming, our staying or our going. Whether we live or die is a matter of absolutely no concern whatsoever to the desert. Edward Abbey Read more
It’s been a long time since you’ve heard from The Holy Rover, because I’ve been out rovering. I recently returned from three weeks in Utah and South Dakota, where (surprise!) I found some holy sites. This picture shows one of my favorite places in Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. If you squint a bit, you can see Bob as a tiny figure in the lower left, sitting in front of a canyon wall. As I snapped the picture I... Read more
Today’s post is my monthly column for the Episcopal News Service: While the Church honors its dead on All Saints Day in November, the national holiday of Memorial Day also has deep resonance for many of us. The observance began as a way to pay tribute to those who had died in wars, but over the years it has expanded to become a time when we remember all those who have died. On this day we visit cemeteries to lay... Read more
Today’s post is by guest blogger Bob Sessions: During May our church’s adult education program has focused on alcoholism and spirituality. During these past weeks I’ve been saddened by hearing first-hand the horrors of alcohol and drug abuse, but I’ve also been moved by survivors’ stories of difficulties encountered and overcome, over and over. Their strengths, struggles, courage, and authenticity are inspiring. Having just written a book on authenticity (Becoming Real: Authenticity in an Age of Distractions), I’m sorry that I... Read more
Everything that happens to you is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your own life and be taught by it. Polly Berends Read more
Today’s post is my monthly column for the Episcopal News Service: Through the years I’ve been part of several church groups in which participants were asked to share their spiritual autobiographies. While people usually told stories of their personal failures, successes, and lessons learned along the way, one evening my friend Jason turned the genre on its head in the most delightful way. He told his autobiography solely through the books he had read through the decades—the authors who had... Read more
The beginning of the month brings another short reflection from Angeles Arrien’s Living in Gratitude. Her chapter for May is a reflection on the idea of grace, which she defines as “an experience in which individuals slip out of ordinary space and time, where there is no separation between themselves and the world around them, and everything seems perfect just as it is.” She goes on to make an interesting connection between grace, gratitude, and gravitas, which all share the same... Read more
Are you a member of Facebook? If you are, do you sometimes have doubts that social networking is as wonderful as many people seem to think? This article from the Atlantic Magazine raises questions that I’ve long felt at some level but never quite articulated: Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? I think the most interesting parts of the article have to do with the increasing loneliness of American society: Despite its deleterious effect on health, loneliness is one of the... Read more
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