I’m having a hard time empathizing with the angst over what supply chain back-ups might mean for our holiday gift-giving. Maybe we won’t be able to find that super-fast phone charger, set of satin sheets, or cool new noise-canceling earbuds in stores this year. So what?
May I make a…
One of my not-so-guilty pleasures is watching Masterpiece on PBS-TV. I just finished “The Durrells in Corfu,” based on the memoir by conservationist Gerald Durrell, the brother of novelist Lawrence Durrell. …
In the monthly Poetry & Spirituality workshop I attend, one of the poets in the group (who happens to be a medical doctor) offered a wonderful poem at our October gathering, reflecting on how the fall colors we find so inspiring are actually the true colors of the leaves.
What…
In recent years the number of International Days of observance have proliferated. They range from the serious, such as World AIDS Day and the International Day for Non-Violence to the fairly ridiculous, like International Pancake Day and World Vasectomy Day. As a longtime journalist, the International Journalists’ Remembrance Day is…
“Keep hope alive” was a popular slogan in the Eighties. I thought of that phrase after several friends mentioned recently how exhausted they feel from the lingering pandemic and festering divisions in the country over politics, mask-wearing and vaccine mandates.
Then I heard a wonderful talk this weekend on “The…
I didn’t need the Harvest Moon or Autumn Equinox to know that fall arrived. The morning nip in the air, the night chill, the earlier sunsets proclaim it. When I was a child, I embraced autumn. …
One of my favorite gospel passages is Matthew 10:42 where Jesus says, “If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, truly I tell you, that person shall by no means lose his reward.” It’s a reminder that acts of compassion don’t have to…
When Labor Day comes around, I usually think of my parents, Charles and Theresa Valente. They did the kind of back-breaking work that is labor. My father drove a truck, loading and unloading 10-gallon barrels of roofers’ asphalt. …
Imagine the enormous sculpted face of a woman rising up from a field surrounded by woods. Imagine her chest cavity opening to reveal a cavern into which humans can walk.
Then imagine a pair of massive hands joined by intertwining roots, reaching out from the soil in an open embrace.
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This week I spent a peaceful hour in meditation amid the cherry trees and cypresses of the Japanese Garden in Urbana, not far from the University of Illinois. …
