Category Archives: work and life

Goose Chase

Just ask anyone in my family: as a rule, I don’t like geese. My spouse has watched, laughing hysterically, as a goose chased me across a park in St. Louis and, as I describe it, tried to peck my eyes … Continue reading

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Trinity Knot

Today is Trinity Sunday, possibly my favorite day (theologically speaking) of the liturgical calendar.  I have heard many jokes passed between my clergy friends about who gets stuck preaching on the day that the liturgy focuses on the seeming conundrum … Continue reading

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After Rain

I glanced at the weather this morning and saw rain in the forecast, but it wasn’t until I was in the middle of the wholesale club store with my cart full of needed supplies for a post-funeral reception at church … Continue reading

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Forty Four

On this day, as the calendar of my life flips another year, I realize once again how things have changed, how much I have learned, and how grateful I am for what this year has offered me on my journey. … Continue reading

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Photo Album

Staying at my parents house is somewhat like living in a photo album. I mean no disrespect by that, but it’s no secret that pictures are everywhere in their house. Even the front porch entry way is festively decorated with … Continue reading

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Late Night Neighbors

I was sitting quietly outside on this beautiful Spring evening. Now in my 40’s, living comfortably as a college professor, it seems odd to me when pieces of my life…times that even now seem distant…flit through my mind. It has … Continue reading

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First Lecture

As the ball dropped to welcome 1995, I made one firm resolution: Teach a class. I was working as a social worker at the time, and I had just been promoted to the Director of my tiny department. It was … Continue reading

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Memorial Day

Today smells of cut grass, and fresh dirt. Breathing in the air on this Monday holiday of Memorial Day weekend, I am aware that wafting smells of burgers, BBQ, and chlorine-ready swimming pools also greet us in this coming-of-summer rite … Continue reading

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Ordinary Pilgrimage

This morning, I reached into my folder of conference materials and pulled out the Google Maps directions that I had hastily printed off at my desk before leaving work on Thursday. I was headed to Urbana-Champaign to attend a qualitative … Continue reading

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First steps

My daughter asked me the other day to tell her about the story of her first steps. She was asking because she came across a little video montage her Dad had made of her toddling first steps across the red … Continue reading

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