a prophetic voice-

  happy new year N ow E nter W ith hope into the new year,   Y esterday’s E nergy and experiences A bsolutely R e-formed,      resurrected,             re-shaped, S o that with D aring courage, A wareness will enlighten and inform Y our path. Happy 2013! new year's intentions   may i walk into this day with a sense of expectation,              of awareness,              of excitement & awe. may i carry with me the gifts of          hope & peace & blessing,          to welcome each person I meet          with the sense of greeting a          fellow-traveler with whom I          will share the journey for          a short while. may i surround and fill each word i speak with love & acceptance,          aware at every moment that          I am part of creating peace            or disharmony in this world. happy new year, one & all! 2013...a new year

Amazing just how lovely it is to reconnect with an old and dear friend. It happened on Friday when Bonnie, aided and abetted by my son and daughter-in-law, surprised me as I prepared to lunch at one of my favorite Charlotte restaurants. Suddenly there she was, standing in front of my table saying, "May I join you for lunch?", her dear face wreathed in smiles- and then we were hugging and laughing, our words tumbling over one another in our eagerness to catch up with one another's lives. Wonderful hardly begins to describe it, the feeling of making contact yet again with this dear friend who has shared so much of my life, and I hers. Our friendship dates back to our days in Florida in the early 1980s, when our families were part of a very special Lutheran church which became extended family for all of us. Since we both had teenagers, getting involved with youth ministry seemed a natural, cementing the bond which had begun to form form between us. When their family reloc

In Memoriam… Heart to heart In anguish reaches Helpless hands clasp Firm in prayer and Yet stretch out to Take another’s trembling Hand in solidarity and love Never more alike, never More united than when We stand in shock and grief Bewildered by those things For which there is no answer Surrounded only by questions For which no solution will Be found in this life Tears running down my cheeks Blend with those on yours- And hers and his and theirs Forming a r iver of mourning- Yet e ven in the midst of all this Grief, we are borne along On this current of sorrow Shared, compassion’s life raft Bearing us along together… Today, tomorrow, to eternity And so, in love, we remember…

                                                      Snickerdoodles   Reminiscence, remembrance…these are words of the heart as well as the mind. Words which resonate deep within, in those places where we store all of the most precious pieces of our lives, in that treasure chest from which we can retrieve them again and again, fingering them with our feelings and re-living the sights, sounds, smells as scene after scene becomes real and alive once more. Such were my thoughts this past weekend as I stood in my one-person kitchen, baking Christmas cookies. Now, I know almost everyone bakes some special cookies at this time of year, but in my family, Christmas baking has always been taken to its extremity, with days and days and days devoted to the preparation of these once-a-year treats. I don’t recall how much my great-grandmother baked, though she was in my life until I was nineteen, but since my mother and I lived with my

The supreme religious challenge is to see God's image in the one who is not in our image.   -Rabbi Jonathan Sacks   in whose image? Imagine...the Hebrew Bible commands us- in more than thirty places- to love and welcome the stranger, for each and all of us have been a stranger...somewhere, at some time... and in the stranger, we can see the face of God, welcome angels unaware.   But far too often- if honesty prevails- the only god we can see is the one made in our image...the one who looks like us and acts the way we think God should... and if God is indeed only the way I see divinity, the way you see holiness, then we can- with smug & self-righteous justification- deny the image of God in those unlike us, in our enemies. Easier by far to "worship" God than to love our neighbor (let alone our enemy!... to see the person right in front us as the unique, beautiful Child of God she is...to stand in awe of t