In her wonderful book, Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott relates a striking story. Carolyn Myss, the medical intuitive who writes and lectures about why people don’t heal, flew to Russia a few years ago to give some lectures. Everything that could go wrong did—flights were canceled or overbooked, connections missed, her reserved room at the hotel […]
“I Wanna Buy a Dress!”
‘Tis the shopping season, and I’m reminded of a lovely story about a woman who was an associate pastor of a large Presbyterian church in southernCalifornia. She loved to go to Nordstroms in Bel Air, mostly to enjoy the holiday ambiance and the live Christmas music on all five floors. She was up […]
Leaving a Bad Relationship
Dear Janet, Good to get your email, though of course I’m sorry that this is a rough time for you. Having to cut off a relationship that held such promise but that ended up being destructive—that’s hard to do. People like Craig are hard to cut off, right? They’re so charming. They promise so much, […]
Do You See the Stamps?
Yesterday my friend Vicki related a remarkable tale. She was preaching the first Sunday of Advent, and the gospel call was “stay awake!” That call rings out because, well—we all tend to be asleep. Living in our sleep, walking in our sleep, working in our sleep, eating and drinking in our sleep. Vicki told of […]
Shopping Under the Influence
Today is for shopping. What do you want? Retailers this year are pushing a lot of “Merry Christmas to Myself.” Despite the obvious narcissism in that phrase, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s all right to know what you want and to get it. I know scores and hundreds of people (unfortunately) who are […]
Make Your Vessel Small
Thanksgiving is always about bounty, cornucopia, an overflowing with excess. Yet many of us are not feeling cornucopian these days. The bounty isn’t exactly flowing. Excess seems only to be the measure of our debt. We’re not feeling the Thanksgiving. In the gospels Jesus tells us, “Do not worry about your life, what you will […]