Finding Your Soul by David Anderson
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Strange Community
Two hours ago I witnessed an accident. I am at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York—here for three days of retreat. I have driven up this morning, but I have checked in early and no lunch is served, so the friendly woman at the welcome desk directs me to a sandwich joint down…
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The Wise Cabbie
The other night in New York I hailed a cab at about ten o’clock. I got in, said, “Grand Central, please,” and the cabbie asked me how my night was. I said I was coming home from a party to celebrate the launch of my wife’s latest book, and it had been a great evening.…
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Flexing Your Letting-Go Muscle
Sunday’s New York Times featured an article entitled, “Mother’s New Little Helper.” The subtitle, “What gets many women through stressful days? A little pill they take at night.” Cheryl Downs McCoy is a working mother who has a lot to manage: “I need to call that guy about fixing the car. I think I’ve run…
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Praying at 2:30 in the Morning
When you ask people, “Where have you experienced the presence of God in some powerful way?” they almost never mention the church. Even though I lead a church, that answer never bothers me. It’s true for me too. My most transporting experiences are always either in nature or in a close personal encounter with another human…
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What Will You Be for Halloween?
The most transforming costume I ever wore was not on Halloween. I auditioned and was chosen to play the “Father” in a neighborhood production of “Hansel and Gretel.” After dying my blonde hair brown, they painted enormous mutton-chops on my cheeks and gave me a thick brown mustache. I looked in the mirror and saw…
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Put Sunlight On Your List
We live by lists. I’ve got lists on my Blackberry calendar. I’ve got little pieces of paper in my shirt pocket that say, “Call Dr.” and “Stop paper/mail” and “Dan.” When I get to work my wonderful, life-saving admin kindly forces me to clean up the clutter on my desk. Then Judy types up a nice…
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No, Thank You
I want to live in a world without thank-you cards. I send them. I receive them (and notice, with furrowed brow, when I do not). I realize how important it is to say “thank you.” I learned that when I was two. I taught my girls to say the “magic words” whenever anyone proffered a…
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The Stethoscope
The essence of spiritual life is often presented as a matter of seeing. The root problem is blindness. We have no “eye of the heart” and therefore we cannot see spiritually. It’s not just that we cannot “see” spiritual truths—that the external world is passing away, that only love endures; that the last shall be…
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October Grass
This morning they mowed the grass on the church lawn. I was surprised to hear the whirr and moan of the mower. Fall has come, the leaves are flaming and drifting. I half imagined that everyone had stowed their mowers and readied their rakes. Not yet. The sound of the mowers registered in my head,…