Category: Lessons
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The anniversary of my dad’s passing arrived this week and it was on my mind. Last week, during a mindfulness exercise with members of my church, we were asked to imagine someone who is suffering or has suffered, and he came to mind. At one point, Rev. Ken asked us to imagine the person in…
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It was the evening of our 24th anniversary and my wife and I were going through a familiar ritual. “You’re sticking around, right?” I asked. “I’m thinking about it,” she said. “But it’s almost 10 o’clock. You need to make a decision.” “I know.” Eventually she said sure, she’d re-up the vows we made in…
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I was dead asleep on a Monday night when the phone rang. I’d been asleep only an hour, but as I was startled awake, it felt like much longer. It was my oldest son calling to say that his car had died on the way home and he was stranded on the side of the…
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One of the amazing things I learned in Haiti happened in a little room located at the headquarters of the Papaye Peoples Movement (MPP). It was a workshop, actually, where a small team put together and repaired solar panels for use by peasants. The technicians told us that they have been doing this for several…
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A poem about the fragility of my attention. Brains have bones. That’s dumb, right? Except—how else to explain the form of my thoughts, the broken-ness of my attention? It explains a lot, how goddamn lost I get in this head, to learn that I broke the bones in my brain. The bones in my brain…
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A poem I wrote after our scary Wednesday in Haiti. The boy lies limp in the dust Of the road. An argument engulfs him. The boy’s Papa screams, “Who did this? What have you done to my boy?” But no one helps the boy. Ayiti lies on the road under a midday sun, Blood from her…
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There were several times in my time in Haiti when I felt like the world as I had known it was turned upside down. One of those came on Monday, when the current director of the Papaye Peasant Movement visited with us and explained his group’s take on education, specifically adult education. This is one…
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One of the most interesting parts of our stay with the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP), in Haiti’s Central Plateau, was the group’s principled take on agriculture. As a child of industrial agriculture (and also as an employee of a company that publishes Organic Life magazine and whose founder, J.I. Rodale, started the organic movement), it was…
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Kids can be lifeboats for parent’s aspirations. Careful, they can tip.
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Pope Francis’ powerful remarks after his trip to Africa strike me deeply: “Africa is a victim. Africa has always been exploited by other powers. From Africa, they came to America, sold as slaves. There are powers that only seek to take the great wealth of Africa … Africa is a martyr, a martyr of exploitation.…
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This is what I presented recently at Wellsprings Congregation as part of our annual Wild and Precious Life service, which draws inspiration from the Mary Oliver poem The Summer Day. It’s a little funny to be here as the representative for the 50s, as I’ve been 50 for 8 days now. But let me tell…
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When I turned 40, my mom pulled me aside and said, “The 40s were the best years of my life. Enjoy them.” I love my mom, and she has rarely led me astray—except about this. Because she was dead wrong. The 40s are not the best of times. Why would a usually optimistic and upbeat…
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