Places can become part of us, can imprint themselves on the soul like people we have loved. Because every place is part of a larger landscape, a cell in the body of the world, to fall in love with any one place — to contact its beckoning beauty, its vulnerability, its variousness — is to…

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It’s part of the nature of man to start with romance and build to a reality. — Ray Bradbury. Yesterday, I wrote about my anniversary, but like the day after my wedding day fifty-four years ago, a marriage really begins the following day. In the reality of building a life together. Ray Bradbury’s  observation, encapsulates a…

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I know every bird in the sky, and the creatures in the field are in my sight. – Psalm 50:11. This verse, and others like it, often brings me back to what I believe to be a truth: the idea that God knows us intimately, deeply, and completely. When I was a boy, this omnipotence was…

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And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit…. –– Mark 4:20. Sometimes, the true “word” comes to us not in a sanctuary but in the sound of a story, told by a friend, on a quiet afternoon. My friend Anne has a way of…

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It’s a beautiful day outside, a blessed relief from the oppressive humidity that’s clung to the city all week. Like most mornings, I settled into my meditation, ready to center myself and then dive into the day’s tasks. But today, the familiar stillness felt different. A quiet resistance simmered beneath the surface, a sense of…

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