“Summertime and the Livin’ is…” George Gershwin A bibliophile, my book stack is always piled high. There are so many reasons why I read but the beauty of a book, no matter what it is about, is that it can be read anywhere. Portable inspiration, intellectual inquiry, history, mystery, biography, theology, romance, and travelogue. Over…
I’m not much of a poet, but I felt compelled to write this poem almost a year ago, during the height of the pandemic, while waiting for the arrival of our daughter, Georgie, who is almost 10 months now. With a full heart, we took this pic together on our first family vacation to Newport,…
George Gershwin composed “Summertime” — the iconic song for the opera Porgy & Bess in 1933. Gershwin wanted to craft a spiritual in the style of an African American folk tune. The lyrics, based on Heyward Dubose’s poem, were inspired by the lullaby “All My Trials.” The song sings of a summer of loss and longing. “Summertime” is sung several times throughout the opera. Its…
Read more “Summertime and the Livin’ is Blank.” : Blog Prompt on Voices!
Are You My Mother? is a classic little children’s book by P.D. Eastman. A little bird falls out of his nest and goes in search of his mother. She has not abandoned him however, she has just gone off to dig up a few worms for his supper. Freshly hatched from his egg, he doesn’t know…
As most of you know, we have a lot of children in our parish and preschool. I love watching your children grow, and I marvel at the rapid changes in their lives, changes that daily take place. One of the things I find so fascinating is the independence that begins to develop at a very…
Once upon an Eastertide, a little boy came home singing Pete Seeger’s — The Garden Song: “Inch by inch, row by row, please, bless these seeds I sow.” (You can click here to hear Pete Seeger sing it, along with the words!) At school the little boy, along with his class, had planted bean seeds in jelly…
“I am the good shepherd.” John 10:11 How many times have we read or heard these words? To nearly all of us city-dwellers, shepherds are creatures of Sunday School stories and fairy tales. Not REAL people. But shepherds are real people, even in 2021, and I have learned some important lessons from a precious friend who is a real-life shepherd. …
I believe in reincarnation. At least professionally I do. Career wise I have been reborn three times. My first incarnation was in the education field as a Montessori schoolteacher. My second incarnation was in the business world as a Systems Development Manager. And my third is an ecclesiastical calling as a parish priest. Three times…
There we stood, the parish priest, the janitor, and me. The sink in the newly-renovated parish kitchen was emitting a gentle jet of water, straight up and out of the base of the faucet, which gracefully landed—thankfully—in the sink. The three of us stood in silence for a while, gaping, amazed that a brand-new sink…
Easter is absurd. Death on a cross followed by resurrection after a few days? That’s crazy. The miracles Jesus performed in his life before that? Also, absurd. When I stop and think about the billions of Christians over time who have bought into this story, I kind of can’t believe it. But on the flip…
