remcmahan

A Way to Be: Not Knowing

March 7, 2022 I won’t speak for you, but I want to know how the war in Ukraine is going to end. I want to know now. I want to know if we are through with the crisis of Covid-19 or if another variant will emerge this spring or summer or fall with all itsContinueContinue reading “A Way to Be: Not Knowing”

A Way to Be

March 2, 2022 In the Christian tradition, today, Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of the six-week period called Lent and is a day to ponder our own mortality. Considering the last two years of perpetual Lent co-existing with the pandemic, it seems sometimes that pondering our own mortality is all we have been doing. AndContinueContinue reading “A Way to Be”

When You Choose War

. . . you cannot stopthe Lenten rose’s pale white blossomsfrom unfurlingnor can you commandthe pink-tinged buds of tulip treesto fold inward.When you choose war, know thatthe grass still greens in spring,the titmouse seeks its “peter-peter,”the black and white cat curls herselfin the dust-moted spill of sun.When war is your choice, prepare yourselffor deep-souled wordsContinueContinue reading “When You Choose War”

Thin Place

February 9, 2022 In Celtic Spirituality, there is an understanding that certain places become the meeting ground between heaven and earth, the “holy ground” of Moses before the burning bush. Such spaces are called “thin places” because the division between the holy and the ordinary disappears and the time spent there usually is fleeting. InContinueContinue reading “Thin Place”

The Return Trip

February 2, 2022 Counting Coats “If you have two coats, give one to someone who doesn’t have any.”” Luke 3:11 I consider the number of coatsI own. More than two.Seven? Eight? Ten?Not all coats, of course.Some are jacketsa pink fleecea purple raincoat.In the checkout lanethe woman in a wind-thinblue sweaterfumbles with food stampsto pay forContinueContinue reading “The Return Trip”

Wood Walking

Jan. 28, 2022 As the Covid viruses rage and mutate while people the world over tire of wearing masks, rebel against distancing, and refuse to concern themselves with others’ safety, I find myself dismayed by humanity’s loss of the Golden Rule, and I head to the woods. I am not the first to do soContinueContinue reading “Wood Walking”

If I Could Do it Over

Years ago, in another life, I met Amy Tunick at the beginning of my freshman year in college. In those brief nine months, the two of us, so very different (I, then, a Roman Catholic from a small town who wanted to be a writer; she, a secular Jew from Miami who wanted to beContinueContinue reading “If I Could Do it Over”

Don’t Let the Light Go Out

January 6, 2022 “Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us.” Walt Whitman In the Christian tradition, January 6 marks the Feast of the Epiphany, the moment that the Christ-Child was recognized by those beyond his small world and so made universal. Astrologers, weContinueContinue reading “Don’t Let the Light Go Out”

2022: Yes!

January 1, 2022 “For all that has been, thank you. For all that is to come, yes!” ~ Dag Hammarskjöld This morning, on the dawn of another new year, it is challenging to say “thank you” for all that has been, especially over these last two years. How do we say “thank you” for anContinueContinue reading “2022: Yes!”

O Antiphons ~ Emmanuel

O Emmanuel, you are our king and judge, the one whom the peoples await and their Savior. O come and save us, Lord, our God. Two days before Christmas, in this Advent season of waiting and longing, the seventh, and final, name for the Christ (or Light, or Love, if you prefer) proclaimed in theContinueContinue reading “O Antiphons ~ Emmanuel”