Every year when the winds of winter blow we see TV footage of cliffs crumbling and some poor guy’s house falling into the hungry waves. Why do they build there? Every year we see homes ruined when rivers break their banks. Why do people live there? I was in California for a while: there it’s …
Monthly Archives: May 2005
Vulnerability
There’s an amazing immediacy about a baby. I was watching my 1 year-old nephew yesterday and every passing feeling gets expressed. Danny likes something he reaches for it, he smiles, his eyes light up. Danny feels bad he pouts, he screams, he sobs. No censorship. Full spontaneity. I’m guessing its an artifact of vulnerability. A …
Monday Week 8 Year I
Maybe I just haven’t reached that age yet but I find it hard to get worked up over death. Let me be clear: I don’t want to die and dying scares me silly but as to what happens next … well I’m happy right now to leave that to the goodness of God. But it’s …
Pentecost 2005
We ask for peace and forgiveness and we get wind and fire. I lived in California for nine years, in the Bay Area. There’s a wind that blows there in October. It’s a wind that puts the fear of God in you. For a few days the weather heats up, the air wheezes, and this …
Friday Week 7 of Easter
There’s a strange sense of time here: time approaching and time receding. Paul is trekking inevitably to Rome where he will die, and Jesus, beyond death, is promising Peter life … and death—a life spent nourishing and a letting go at its end. We chose this last part of John, as novices, for our vows. …