by David Anderson
Pam spent last night sleeping in a chair beside her father’s hospital bed. He is dying. “It is like sitting with someone who is giving birth,” Pam said. “It’s hard work. It can be frightening—you need strength and courage to undergo this suffering, this ordeal, to bring a life to birth. And,” she said, “it’s […]
by David Anderson 15 Comments Filed Under: Death/Dying, Family, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Reality--trusting it, Waiting
Today when I went out to get the paper, I was smitten by the weeping cherry tree in the front garden. Its blossoms were like huge pink puff balls, swaying in a light breeze. It was May Day. The sun was vernally strong. But I was not here to admire a tree. I was on […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Daily Practice, Nature/Creation, Now/ the Present, Seeing
The secret of life takes us into unbelievable paradox—literally. We cannot believe it. The miraculous appears in the ordinary, the eternal hides among the transitory, the universal lays in the lap of the particular . . . and we can’t see it. That’s because in our yearning for the divine, we’ve always been taught to […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Heaven, Now/ the Present, Seeing
Are you dead or alive? Alive people are awake and aware—they’re open to the whole of human life. They’re open to receive all the gifts and joys and exquisite delights of human life—and they’re just as open to receive the suffering and the disappointment and the sadness. They can sit with that, too, and […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Choice, Daily Practice, Happiness, Now/ the Present
The message of Easter is very simple. When something dies, bury it. Then walk away, let it be. The Bible says three days—let it be for three days. That’s how long Jesus was in the tomb. That’s how long Jonah was buried in the belly of the sea monster. “Three days” is biblical language for […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Hope, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Reality--trusting it, Uncategorized
The most remarkable thing about the sequester crisis in Washington is that the whole “problem” is self-caused. Our leaders designed a terrible Sword of Damocles that would drop and half-kill the country unless we worked together to find a sensible way forward. Then they refused to work together to find a sensible way forward. Now […]
by David Anderson 1 Comment Filed Under: Conflict, Happiness, Now/ the Present Tagged With: Conflict
Some years ago I was enjoying a Shrove Tuesday pancake supper, when a parishioner came to me and said, “I want you to meet a friend.” I could see a woman with white hair sitting at her table. We walked over, I shook her hand and said, “Hello, my name is David Anderson.” She said, […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Daily Practice, Faith/Trust, Gratitude, Happiness, Now/ the Present
Often it is some brush with mortality that awakens the heart. Annie Dillard lived a long time beside Tinker Creek, but it wasn’t until she nearly died of pneumonia that she began to go down and sit by that creek, watching the frogs and the bugs, the birds and wildflowers. She jotted down notes, kept […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Change, Now/ the Present, Seeing, Vocation/ Calling