Today is Ash Wednesday. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3L3c23MfC0?rel=0] More than 70 Episcopal parishes in 18 states will bring Ash Wednesday to the streets, kicking off the Lenten season with a twist.They’ll offer the Christian sign of repentance — a smudged cross of ashes...
New Eyes
posted by Barbara Wyer
It was sometime during the fourth grade that my ten-year-old nose was coerced into cohabitating with a pair of spectacles. At least that’s the year they began showing up in school pictures, little pink cat eyes that made me look perpetually shell-shocked. I hated wearing them, and finally...
Shut up and Listen
posted by Barbara Wyer
Last Friday afternoon I was tearing around the house like a bat out of hell, tossing things in a suitcase helter-skelter and keeping one eye on the clock. I had an appointment with God in western Tennessee. In a moment of weakness, I’d signed up for a guided silent retreat at a convent somewhere on the way to Memphis. All I knew is that it was two and a half hours from Franklin and it didn’t take second grade math to figure out that I was leaving too late to arrive on time. Sigh! Not the best way to begin my weekend of retreat from manic modernity to silent listening. Welcome to my world. Too much to do – good things, most of...
Inconvenient Trees 3
posted by Aaron Manes
Part 3: The Tree of Life The wilderness, the unknown, the future – these are the things that trouble us throughout our lives. For many of us this existence is a scary thing. We try not to think about it so much but sometimes we can’t help it – or at minimum I can’t help it. So...
Welcoming Advent
posted by Barbara Wyer
I don’t go to the mall much. It’s not that I don’t enjoy shopping for Free People Anthropologie Uggs and massage gift certificates, (yes, dear this is a hint) but maybe like yours, our disposable income is a little harder to come by this year and honestly we’ve accumulated enough stuff...
Living Like Jesus
posted by Aaron Manes
Click Here to Buy Dear Ed Dobson, I have found that I really enjoy reading A.J. Jacobs books because I like the challenge and the story that goes along with the challenge. A.J. has read the encyclopedia and tried to live out the mitzvat which was hilarious. The thing I like about those...
Finding Center
posted by Barbara Wyer
One of my Facebook friends is known for his thoughtful status updates. No political rhetoric or cheesy humor; you can count on him to be insightful and profound. Last week he posted something that hit dead center for me and it got an interesting online conversation going back and forth between...
The Sky is Green and...
posted by Clint Ribble
There are many stories in Scripture that helped form the foundational elements of my faith. These stories were so entwined with the inscape of my convictions, that not only did I need them to speak to a greater Truth; I needed them to be literally, historically and factually accurate. I needed...
Questioning the Answers
posted by Barbara Wyer
A year or so ago, I found myself in a bit of a rough patch, trying to make sense of a jumble of thoughts that refused to go away. There were a couple of pointed conversations with God about this, but mostly it involved just laying awake in the dark and staring up at the ceiling. I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud, even to my husband – who was on his own (wonderful, he said) spiritual journey. Those may have been the good old days (if you measure “good” by the lack of existential angst.) Because all I was doing was wrestling with someone else’s journey. (Can what he believes actually be true? Really? Hmmm. That’s a new...