by David Anderson
A few days ago I said to my daughter, “For your birthday we’re thinking we’d buy you a new toaster oven.” She’d been saying she needed one. But immediately she said, “That’s great, but what I’d really like would be for you to come and spend a day with me, just taking care of all […]
by David Anderson 18 Comments Filed Under: Intimacy, Listening
is the queen of surrender. When the angel comes to her with the news, both impossible and outrageous, she says simply, “Let it be.” Let what is about to happen, happen. This isn’t passivity or indifference. It isn’t fatalistic. Not, “Well, it’s bound to happen, so there’s no sense fighting it.” It’s curious, wanting to […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Lent, Letting Go, Listening, Reality--trusting it, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized, Vocation/ Calling
begins the Lenten journey—every year—by heading out to the wilderness and taking us along (Mark 1:9-15). The wilderness is often portrayed as an ominous and threatening place—avoid it at all costs. But what if it has a word for us, a message from God? Because the Exodus sojourn in the wilderness became the single most […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, creation, Discernment, Lent, Listening, Nature/Creation, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Surrender, Transformation
Luke 2: 1-7 “And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city.” It was December 22, 2000. I was sitting at my desk proofing a service bulletin when a call came in. The receptionist said someone wanted to talk to “the pastor.” That usually meant: someone wants money. This bulletin was past deadline, […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Advent, Awareness, Awe, Discernment, Epiphany, Listening, Mystery, Seeing
No, no—that’s not how you do it. That’s what I was thinking as the group began to walk the labyrinth. They were here for one of the retreats that Pam and I host here at Copper House. The leader asked if the small group of six could use the labyrinth for one of their sessions, […]
by David Anderson 9 Comments Filed Under: Community, Daily Practice, Faith/Trust, Listening, Prayer/Meditation, Surrender
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, […]
by David Anderson 12 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Awe, Beauty, Daily Practice, Grace, Listening, Nature/Creation, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Reality--trusting it
Priests and ministers get calls from the local funeral home all the time. Someone has died. They may have been Methodist or Lutheran or Episcopalian, whatever the denomination of your church, but that’s the only, tenuous connection. Would you come and do a service? I walked into the funeral home and met the two daughters. […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Blessing, Conflict, Family, Grace, Listening, Love
We expect monks and mystics to tell us how important silence is. Gordon Hempton is neither of those. He is an acoustic ecologist, someone who studies the sound of the natural world and seeks to preserve it. In his book, One Square Inch of Silence, Hempton says there are less than a dozen places left […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, creation, Daily Practice, Listening, Nature/Creation, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Silence, Uncategorized