GREENSBORO – Grief is a funny thing. You just never know when it will pop up, taking over your day and your mood. It can be broody and sad; it can be violent and enraging. Honestly, there is also some relief in there. Mostly it is just, for me, an[Read More…]
Voices of Spirit
Sow seeds of the spirit
EAST CRAFTSBURY – It is a strange coincidence of history that the Battle of Gettysburg came only days before Independence Day 1863. I grew up in North Carolina with both Southern and Yankee family, and my great-great-grandfather was a first-generation German immigrant and Lutheran minister who studied at Gettysburg Seminary[Read More…]
In the Woods
Where the order of things,randomly organized in cycles isimperceptible through the passing of time or within a fraction of timeWhere everything begins and everything ends seen or unseen.I enter this timeless space belonging to it but also an intrudera naive observermeasurable and predictableyet also impetuously unpremeditatedSomething wild in the woods[Read More…]
Sacramental Space
Up here north, in verdant friend Vermont,as today’s dawn seeped in,I walked our grassy, backyard labyrinth,as mowed upon our mound.Deep thanks rose up—and now recur—for her who fashioned such a sacramental space,and shares this brickless, green cathedral(and that of her life) each day with me.When the labyrinth path led me[Read More…]
The Fruit of the Spirit Changes Us
HARDWICK – It’s hard to look at all the things happening in our world and think we can have an impact. It’s difficult to know how to make a difference. How can we live out our lives in ways that are meaningful, important and life-giving to our world? One overarching[Read More…]
What’s the Point? When Work Doesn’t Work
WALDEN – Every morning, many of us wake up, check our phones and feel that familiar pit in our stomachs. Another crisis. Another tragedy. Another reminder that the world feels heavy, chaotic and uncertain. And yet, we pour our coffee and get on with the day. Because what else can[Read More…]
The Neighborhood of God Depends on You
EAST CRAFTSBURY – I wouldn’t be a Presbyterian pastor if I didn’t occasionally mention Presbyterian pastor, Mr. Rogers. For decades, Mr. (not going by Rev.) Rogers had a PBS show filmed from a Pittsburgh studio, “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” You can pinpoint exactly where it was filmed in Studio A at[Read More…]
The Ripple Effect is Wide
CRAFTSBURY − I imagine we’re all familiar with the ripple effect. Drop a stone of any size into a pond, and watch the ripples feather out from the point of impact. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to imagine the many ripples affecting us, emanating from us, moving toward and[Read More…]
The Promised Land is a Fragile Promise
NEWTON, Mass. – In the Hebrew Bible, Moses, the great liberator of the Israelites, only glimpses the Promised Land from afar. After forty years of leading his people through the wilderness, he dies just outside its borders. The moment is both tragic and profound: a symbol of longing, of striving[Read More…]
We Were Not Brought this Far to be Left Behind
by David Schilling WOODBURY — Last month, the Montpelier Community Gospel Choir filled the Old Meeting House with music, carrying a history of holding up the light in the darkest of times. Music of praising God in times of oppression, over and over again. Their voices sang “I’ve come too[Read More…]
Living Fully is all About Love
MORRISVILLE – A few weeks ago, in the space of 24 hours, I received both the joyous news that my first granddaughter was born and later the heartbreaking word that my father had died. Having both of these life-changing events happen so close to each other has been an incredibly[Read More…]
Savor the World to Save What We Can
GREENSBORO – The writer E.B. White, author of “Charlotte’s Web,” once wrote, “Every morning when I wake up, I am torn between the desire to save the world and the desire to savor the world. This makes it hard to plan the day!” I have loved this quote for many[Read More…]
