What once was verdant green turns fiery orange, crimson red, then slowly browns to death, unties from living bonds, lets go sustaining branches drifts softly to the ground, lies quiet in the darkened mud among those gone before.  All is lost in crumpled mire.  Blades and veins and midribs disappear amid the roots, degrade, decline, decay.  Soon they are no more, just dirt returning to the dirt.   No…

He wasn’t my favorite teacher. He was intimidating and a tough grader. For a teenager with the kind of learning disabilities that make it difficult to get assignments done, he was more an arch nemesis than a friend. I was also rather lazy and preferred basketball to conjugating verbs.  I’d heard crazy stories about him from my older sister. She told of how he prowled the aisles between the…

Sometimes it’s easy to be invisible. To do work behind the scenes and leave no trace for others to discover your mistakes or imperfections. I was part of a leadership team at a very large church for several years. I successfully hid flaws, fears, sin, and secrets behind a façade of servitude and performance. I think that the most crowded places are the easiest to operate in invisibility… and…

I love the village. I love how we come together as a community who supports and loves and cares for one another. I love how we ask each other about our lives; the good the bad, the hard....it’s so refreshing still after 14 years to be apart of this kind of authenticity. It’s so rich, so scary and I’m so grateful. As our family enters into a season of…

Micah 5:2 . . . But you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, little among the clans of Judah-from you shall come forth the one who is to rule in Israel. When Jesus was born, Augustus had been in power for 25 years. He was, in that moment in time, King of kings - he ruled from Gibraltar to Jerusalem and from Britain to the Black Sea. He brought peace to the…

I am going to try to not spoil anything here... Last week I was in Michigan on a family trip. It was a great time. My kids got time with their grandpa who was kind and affectionate and generous, they got time in the cool Michigan air, the cold lake water, the warm sand. But you know that feeling of "being on vacation" and then "needing a vacation from…

It's not my norm to have conversations with call center folk (unlike some of us Villagers -- Rod, Emily L...). Today however when I called to get through the red tape to get my new arthritis medication, I asked how her day was going. She said it was busy but good and I mused that it would be as long as people weren't mean to her. She responded with…

Earlier this year I had the big idea that it was time to do another backpacking trip in the White Mountain wilderness of Northern Arizona. I’ve been taking kids of various age ranges to these mountains for a couple of decades, mostly in conjunction with the developmental stages of my own kids. This time, though, had to be special. I had promised the community’s younger kids a wilderness excursion…

Earlier this Summer, my family took a trip to San Diego. As I sat there on the beach, I was revisited by childhood memories of swimming in the ocean. The sun would barely be coming up, when my mom would cover my brothers and I in layers of sunscreen before we’d go out into the water. One particular trip, I was dragged in an undertow, seconds felt like minutes as…

Many years ago I remember telling my friend, Wayne, that he ought not attribute motives to another person. I assured him he couldn’t possibly know what was rattling around in someone else’s head. He acknowledged my rebuke and was repentant. A short while later he confronted me about the comments I had made about someone else’s motives saying, “Aren’t you the one who told me to never attribute motives?”…

I recently came to a crossroad, the choice between continuing on my path or taking a sharp left. I don't know about you, but in situations like these, I tend to set up camp and talk myself in and out of every possibility for taking either direction (enter memories of debates on a Robert Frost poem - there is no road!). Both choices seemed promising, so I built my…

For Christmas my daughter got a set of wooden cookies from her aunt and uncle. They have cookie bases with frosting tops that connect with Velcro. The cookies came with a cookie sheet, an oven mitt, a knife, and a spatula. All together it was a wonderful gift for a two-year-old girl who loves to help her mama bake. I’m not sure when I first heard about the Blue…

Grief comes spewing out when you least expect it. A word here. A taste there. A smell. A song. A question. Insignificant, random moments that are suddenly thrust on you and tears flow and your heart is pierced and all the loss comes falling out in a heap in the middle of God knows where. It’s not arrangeable or scheduled. It can’t be forced. It just happens.  I was…

Blurred lines, dull lighting, and indistinct objects were all a normal part of the world in front of me. It’s amazing how one can spend so much of their lifetime with the illusion that they see things clearly.  Another lens, another perspective… can change your world instantly. Lines become clear, lighting more vivid, and objects more distinct.  I was 17 when I received my first set of glasses. They…

They slowly slip away, one by aging one, limping down alone these ancient saints take little with them but simple, godly hearts and tattered memories.  The things they built become decrepit edifices, abandoned now by children’s children and the children after them. Beside decaying paths the old ones slowly fall away.  Soon there is no memory, no recollection they were here.  The world goes speeding by, for life goes…