My father, as drawn by my nephew, Kasper Kavalaris I grew up in a Swedish Baptist Church in Yankton, South Dakota. My family sat in the second pew, one long enough to hold my two brothers, my four sisters, my parents, and me. We sang all the American gospel hymns—by Fannie Crosby, Charles Wesley, Ira […]
Awareness
The Day of The Dead, Mexico City
The funeral home in town has recently changed its name. It is now a “Life Celebration Home.” We are a death-avoidant culture. And the church is, often, little better. Many are deep-sixing funerals for “Life Celebrations.” The irony, the unintended sadness, is that the more we try to banish death, the more troubled about death […]
The Spiral Staircase
“We’re going in circles! We’re going in circles!” That was the sing-song cry from the backseat when our kids were young and we were lost, trying to follow directions, turning, turning and ending up back where we started. Not long ago I was suffering through a difficult passage. Fears I thought I’d dealt with were […]
Unlearning the Lessons of Happiness
“How happy are you?” Happiness studies are all the rage these days, and happiness books abound. The most popular courses at Ivy league colleges are devoted to happiness and what it takes to get it. The tricky thing is, happiness surveys are self-reporting. People respond to questions like: I am pleased with the way I […]
My Spiritual Hot Spot
My definition of a saint, a spiritual giant, is someone who makes other people holy, just by their presence. Someone who engenders peace in other people’s hearts, who calls forth beauty and goodness and faithfulness in other people’s lives. Nurturing your own holiness, your own peace, calling forth your own beauty and goodness and faithfulness […]
The Soundtrack of Life
In the last year or so I’ve been listening to scores of podcasts and as many books on Audible. Any time in the car, even twenty minutes to the grocery, I’m listening to Tolkien or Wendell Berry or a history of Mexico, ahead of our fall trip there. Washing dishes and cleaning up the house […]
What The Lover Sees
If you love it enough, anything will talk to you.-George Washington Carver The arborist had come with a crew of workers to lay a great ash to rest. While he was here, I asked him to cut out an old stump that was now in a space where a garden was taking shape. The stump […]
We Came. We Sat. They Sang
After a run of hot days and nights, a cool spell descended. It was early morning, an almost chilly breeze in the air, and Pam and I decided to sit for meditation out on the deck. After the morning reading, we sat in silence—or so we thought. The surrounding trees seemed to teem with birds, […]