Last week I drew a bit of inspiration from a current read, essentially a guidebook on the animals found between the tide lines on the Pacific coast. I’m revisiting that same book, Ed Ricketts’ Between Pacific Tides today, on a slightly different topic. A couple of days ago, I began the section on open rocky…
Category: Life
Shame
We humans are like hermit crabs sometimes. (Never dreamed I’d ever think that thought, let alone write it in a public venue, but I also didn’t expect to make any connections between a 1930s guidebook on the inhabitants of Pacific tidelines and Fernando Ortega songs, and here we are. Comment here or send me an…
A Light in Dark Places
One of the pleasures – yes, I said it: pleasures – of a lengthy daily commute is the opportunity to listen to audiobooks without spending weeks on each one. Sure, I probably could read with eyes faster than I listen, but the drive is time that I wouldn’t have spent reading with my eyes anyway…
Shadows
Fall has arrived here in northeast Ohio, marked most significantly at my house by leaves: the brilliant orange, red, and yellow hues as they stop producing chlorophyll, the massive piles we’ve raked already, and the quantities that still linger both on the ground and as yet unfallen on the trees. The air has not yet…
The Goodness of the Lord
Take time to enjoy the little things, they tell us, the simple pleasures that make life enjoyable. I will be the first in line to agree with that philosophy. Lingering over a steaming cup of good coffee in the quiet stillness of the early morning. A stunning view of a gorgeous landscape spread out before…
On the Psalms
My companions have become darkness.1 Not the cheeriest of phrases by any means, and not likely the expectation for the closing of a conversation (which it is – a conversation with God), or the topic of a sermon preached on Mother’s Day. (Nor is that a hypothetical example; a pastor, who shall rename nameless and…
The changing of the seasons
Fall is not my favorite time of year. Sure, I enjoy air temperatures lower than 90, and the break from high humidity is nice. Sunsets before 8pm and frost on the grass heralding the slow, long haul towards winter though are all less enjoyable. The lengthy shadows as I drive towards home after work and…
Self-Justifying Rationalizations
I’m not sure whether you’ve noticed, and it could possibly just be me, but a careful reading of and thoughtful meditation on Scripture is often uncomfortable. Sure, it’s all sunshine and roses here when I read about how closely the Israelites obeyed God and how well the kings listened to the prophets He sent (read:…
Oh Be Careful Little Eyes
One of the most popular storybooks when my kids were too young to read was a treasury of farmyard tales. It wasn’t just preferred by my kids; I loved it too, not least because there was an accompanying CD of all the stories, so I could push play and find a few minutes’ space to…
Reputations Based on Speech
One of the lesser known facts about our family dynamics is that of the two adults, I’m the bigger sports fan. That doesn’t mean that I’m a raging fanatic, only that if any kind of sporting event is playing in our house, it’s because I turned it on. Similar to my tastes in reading, where…