Centering always comes first             After wedging the clay, that is,             And thumping it down on the wheelhead             And sponging it slippery slimy wet Hands close over the leftward spinning earthen mound . . .                             (From “Utterance” by Jane Fremon) I’ve been thinking again lately of pottery. I’d like to make some. It’s on my list of “things to do before I die,” where... Read more

every riven thing I have returned with renewed gratitude over these past few months to Christian Wiman’s poem “Every Riven Thing” for this striking assurance: God goes, belonging to every riven thing he’s made 
sing his being simply by being
 the thing it is . . . . As two friends recently traveled the last stretch of their journeys on this planet, life seemed, indeed, a “riven thing,” and we, whom they were leaving, riven again with loss. And God... Read more

like birds hovering I began with a bit from Isaiah a couple of days ago, and find myself back there today, musing over this lovely metaphor: “Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem . . . .” (Isa. 31:5). Those biblical birds do a lot of hovering. I looked it up: there are 128 references to birds, 30 different kinds being mentioned by name, and another 66 references to wings, though some of those are to... Read more

broader than the measures of the mind I find these words arresting every time I see them. They come from an 1862 hymn by Frederick William Faber. The whole line is a striking reminder: For the love of God is broader than the measures of the mind. My brother and his friends who spend their time at play in the fields of astronomy and math and astrophysics have broad minds, indeed; they seem to be able to think in light-years... Read more

repentance and rest I was surprised recently to come upon a line in Isaiah that helped me rethink repentance: “The Holy One of Israel says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength’” (Isaiah 30:15). What surprised me was the pairing of repentance and rest—as though the two simply belonged together. As though the notion of repentance didn’t come with an unsettling “or else” clause. The term “repent” has been contaminated by caricature: it’s... Read more

Watch and pray Matt. 26:41 This little phrase is literally a wake-up call. Jesus says it to the disciples when he finds them sleeping through what was to be an hour of prayer. It’s another of the many moments in the Gospel stories that is both convicting and slightly comical. It’s hard not to sympathize with the drowsy men who are trying so hard to be faithful and failing in such a common, human way. I think of the times... Read more

Remember that you are dust . . . Yes, but it’s stardust. “We are all stardust” writes William Bryant Logan in his lovely book, Dirt. “Everything is stardust.” This is not romantic metaphor. The claim comes at the beginning of a long, beautifully detailed reflection on the life of the soil, of which also our bodies are made–mostly six elements: oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus. A colleague of mine, a chemistry professor, once gave an impressive chapel talk... Read more

This piece is the first of what I hope will be daily reflections for the season of Lent.  The practice of lectio divina teaches us to listen as we read for the voice of the Spirit saying “Here:”  Here is where you will find a gift, an open door, an insight, the direction or consolation you need.  Sometimes the eye alights on a mere preposition or an inconspicuous modifier, sometimes on an image or a startling verb–and a little shock... Read more

Anne Sexton once wrote of a child, “Love grew around her like crabgrass.” It’s one of my favorite of her many surprising lines, partly because it makes me smile and remember a particular child, and partly because it gets at something true about love: when it finds a place to take root, it spreads in all directions and finds new places to take root and cling. Love is rooting and branching everywhere—the life force that spins electrons and divides cells... Read more

The way of the wise person, Lao Tzu taught, is the way of water. One translation of the Tao Te Ching puts it this way: Nothing is weaker than water, But when it attacks something hard Or resistant, then nothing withstands it, And nothing will alter its way. Wisdom, he teaches, like water, is fluid, transparent, forceful, shaped by the channels it passes through–which it also shapes–reflective, responsive to change in temperature, capable of holding things in solution…and so on.... Read more