Should I be surprised at how unnerving it is to write a memoir? My mother died of Alzheimer's disease, so someday I may forget who I have been. I better finish the story before it’s too late. I recently reread a poem I wrote years ago, a kind of memoir in fewer than two hundred words. It includes references...
When I was in high school, I discovered a cure for anxiety-driven insomnia: sleeping outside. When I returned from a summer in Afghanistan between my junior and senior years, I suffered reverse culture shock. I’d lived a slow, down-to-earth life in Kabul, where homes seemed to grow out of the soil. I woke up to rooster crows and donkey brays...
The crucifix that once hung in Nada Hermitage’s Sangre de Cristo Chapel in Crestone, Colorado formed me. Created by Santa Fe artist Dan Davidson, it combined both wood and bronze. And instead of a dead Jesus with eyes shut and head to the earth, it portrayed an ambiguous moment just before death. The young...
We have not slept. Our entire city is haunted by the images, videos and stories streaming out of Gaza. Life seems heavily veiled in a haze of shared grief, fear, helplessness and even guilt as we try to understand how our tax dollars could be used by those we elected to slaughter our relatives overseas. Abdullah H. HammoudThese words from the Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, haunt me. My ancestors came to America generations ago, so I cannot imagine what it feels like to be here, to love America,...
Is wilderness important in our lives? In the latest Fire and Light podcast, Tessa and Dave describe a recent trip to Death Valley and reflect on what struck them most in that vast, wild, empty landscape. We discuss the “practice of the wild” and the joy of encountering our liberating smallness in communion with ancient stone and starlit...
It was a relief to get past Las Vegas en route to Death Valley. an open space we traversed reminded my friend Tessa and me of Colorado’s mountain-ringed San Luis Valley, where we once lived. But then we dipped southwest from Pahrump, Nevada, crossed a ridge and dropped into an alien world. Vegas was electrified urban surrealism. As we...
I am old enough to recall when Americans got our news from a daily newspaper and thirty minutes of televised evening broadcasts. This left more than twenty hours to hear other voices and see three-dimensional, living creatures. My adult life has been bizarre enough to take place mostly in wilderness. There, the voices include loons, coyotes,...
In our first 2024 Fire and Light podcast, “Ordinary Plenty: Celtic...
Happy New Year! The greeting may sound glib at the beginning of 2024. But joy expresses courage in the face of pain and flaunts hopeful resistance in the face of angry disrespect. I remind myself that Christ is born and risen, never to be eliminated from our...
We hope your Advent deepened your hope even in the midst of dark times. Now we celebrate the Word made flesh, the great Light that shines on us who have dwelt in darkness and sorrow. Enjoy our brief illustrated celebration of 2023 and our Christmas greeting. And may these next twelve days bring you wonder and gratitude.