Evening Thoughts

I write you from a hilltop house high above Newport Beach in California. Mom and I hiked up to the top of the neighborhood this evening and saw the city lights for miles and the stars above them. The day began cloudy; we flew into a sea of grey in the sky and down below. [...]

Celtic Music

Since several of you asked… I thought I’d post my favorite Celtic albums (go on, twist my arm). There is just something about Celtic music; soulful, keening, mournful, glad, and sometimes all at once! Here are my favorites with further details:
Celtic Visions (Instrumental, Artist: John Mock, Green Hill Music) – My first Celtic CD. Traditional [...]

Soundtracks to life

If there is one thing about this technological age that I love with shameless abandon, it is the presence of music in my mundanest moments. There’s an awful lot of gladness to be gotten out of cleaning if you do it while waltzing to Josh Groban’s So She Dances. There’s a secret abandon to be [...]

It’s in the air…

I’m home and I can feel it… that first morning chill that signals the advent of my favorite season: autumn. I was flipping through my old copy of The Story Girl the other day and found its pages full of pressed autumn leaves from last year. I had forgotten that while I was in PEI [...]

For the Road

I’m heading home through the rain grey clouds of lovely Seattle today. We saw so many lovely things and wandered delightful places – I’ll write of them soon. For now, here’s a poem from beloved old Bilbo, a poem for the road:
 Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has [...]

Saturday in Seattle

We are just waking up after our third night in a row of staying up far too late, though last night was well worth it. The concert was amazing, in a beautiful old club downtown with rows of star lights for a stage background. Once in awhile you come into the presence of clear, strong [...]

Gypsies again…

Well, we’ve been home a whopping three and a half weeks and tomorrow, Joel and I are off again. But while I’ll be home the following Monday, he will be settling in permanently to Seattle Pacific University. Due to some long-storied and very deep inner workings of Spirit and thought, I have decided not to [...]

A Prayer for a Misty Sunday

I am resting in after two days of conference, enjoying a Sabbath rest after the work. There is a heavy mist, the first one of autumn, over the mountains and I’ve been paging through a book of old prayers. This is a prayer from the Carmina Gadelica, an amazing collection of the age old prayers [...]

To all good souls…

So take up your burden you bright young soul,
Cast the weight of your love to this grand tug of war,
Join the ranks of the wise
Who are giving their lives
To the yearning and loving and striving,
It’s their love that is calling the rising,
Up of the day,
So take up this fight, be a lover of life,
And with [...]

A Tribute to Dinner-time Debate

Someday I am going to write a brilliant essay on the link twixt dinner table discussions and the making of people with opinionated and highly convicted souls. I have a sneaking suspicion of late, you see, that much of my vim for ideals and zest for life came from the rollicking discussions (i.e., friendly arguments) [...]