Last night, stumblingly tired after a full day of teaching on top of a weekend away at a Quaker retreat, I turned the heat on on the wrong burner of the stove. A few minutes later, picking up a pot lid I thought was cool, I gave myself a second degree burn on the fingers of my right hand. Burns being what burns are, the pain increased throughout the evening, and by bedtime, I could not keep my hand out... Read more

It is unseasonably hot today, and humid. More like late June than early May. And I have realized that it is the sugar maple that says “summer” to me. Now that the familiar shapes of sugar maples have taken back their female roundedness on the hillsides and edges of fields, my heart says it is summer. Even when the mercury drops again–as it surely will, as it always does in early May–I will be in summer now. It is Beltane,... Read more

I may have mentioned that my drive to work and back is unusually beautiful. I drive past three different waterfalls, five working farms, and past a parade of old stone walls, apple trees, and white clapboard houses. It is eye candy. It is also the beginning of serious countryside. And one thing about rural America: it takes its religion seriously. Near the end of my morning drive, or the beginning of my evening commute, there is one particular ranch house... Read more

It’s the last day of my April vacation, and I’ve got the blues. There’s always so much more to be done than there is time to do it in. This week has been full of outdoor things. Peter and I planted a small orchard–eight semi-dwarf apple trees, in holes dug with friends, and with expertise borrowed from friends. One of the two perennial beds has been weeded; heaps of brush and dead branches have been hacked up and removed. The... Read more

How truthful are dreams, I wonder? How much are they flattery, and how much are they our waking selves, writ small? I dreamed last night I was in a war; I believe it was the WWII. Somehow, I’d been drafted, and I was being shipped to an army camp of some sort. After a while, I looked down at the rifle in my hands, puzzled. “Wait–” I thought. “This can’t be right. I’m a Quaker. I don’t fight.” And they... Read more

It rained today in my Quaker meeting: sun showers that came, and went, and came again. Today was a good one, when I felt that power of love that holds it all together for us humans, and for the rocks and trees and animals besides. When I felt that thing that makes the Quakers quake–or makes me quake, anyway, and makes my eyes run with inner sun showers. Call it God. Call it gratitude. Call it joy. It was my... Read more

I am more grateful than I can say for the warm weather we’ve had this past week. With the sun out, and the temperatures rising into the sixties during the day, the snow is almost gone, the streams are high, and there’s a riot of life going on in the woods. At the same time, this is March… the time of year just before the main onslaught of the state’s MCAS tests and spring fever for my students. Whatever of... Read more

I sometimes find Monday mornings a bit of a chore. (Doesn’t everyone?) Sunday was wonderful; the weather was sunny and really warm, and not only did I find worship at Mount Toby especially satisfying, but friends stopped in unexpectedly in the afternoon, and we all hiked in the woods together. In the evening, I read, did my physical therapy exercises, and watched television with Peter. It was calm and lovely, and maybe trying to cling to the day a little... Read more

Not too long ago, I wrote what I saw as the first of a two part post on my personal peace testimony. Mostly, this post is the continuation of that one; having spent time talking about what my peace testimony has not asked of me, I’m going to try to explain what it has. First, though, I think I need to say a little bit about what “testimonies” are, at least as I understand them, for those out there who... Read more