Category Archives: Weekly Overtones

“Everything is relative.”  Einstein 1905 “Nothing is definitive.”  Ekstrom 2018 “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”  2 Peter Time has slowed. I just realized, as we move into autumn, that the summer seemed to last a really long time.  This usually isn’t the case,Continue reading “Moment to Moment”

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.” Better Things How is everyone doing? It’s been a tough year so far and it shows no sign of getting any less difficult.  Many people are hurting and I know we will be dealing with the fallout of the pandemicContinue reading “Better Things”

One of my favorite bands is the punk/new wave group Talking Heads.  Their angular, ironic, quirky music doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I have always felt an affinity with them.  Perhaps it’s because their lead singer was diagnosed later in life with Asperger’s Syndrome (like me).  For whatever reason, their music speaks to me, especiallyContinue reading “The Good Thing”

“Instructions for living a life.Pay attention.Be astonished.Tell about it.” Mary Oliver, poet A famous (now infamous) comedian once joked that 80% of life is showing up. There’s more than a little truth in that.  Showing up, being physically present, is all that is required of us much of the time.  Unfortunately, I haven’t even beenContinue reading “Showing Up”

This blog post is late for one very good reason:  I didn’t like my original post.  It was just kind of…meh.  So, I threw it out.  The only thing I’ve kept from it is the photograph above.  No, that dashing gentleman isn’t me.  He is the famed fencer Luigi Barbasetti who wrote the classic book TheContinue reading “Impossibilities”

Today is our wedding anniversary, but my wife and I won’t be spending the day as we normally would.  I’m in an all-day spiritual direction class, and she is spending time with family in Montana and Oregon (by spending time with family I mean she and my niece are visiting wineries).  It’s a different kindContinue reading “Already…but not quite yet”

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”            Jeremiah 29:11  “Man makes plans . . . and God laughs.”          Michael Chabon Spiritual lessons come in all shapesContinue reading “The Best-laid Plans”

“and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’”              Matthew 14 So…last week’s swimming lesson didn’t go as well as I had hoped.  In fact, it seemed like a step backward instead of forward.  The problem, I feel, was cumber. Cumber isn’t a word we use these days,Continue reading “Cumber”

“If grace is so wonderful, why do we have such difficulty recognizing and accepting it? Maybe it’s because grace is not gentle or made-to-order. It often comes disguised as loss, or failure, or unwelcome change.” ― Kathleen Norris When I was preaching I tried to follow one rule:  there needed to be blood on theContinue reading “Graceful Faith”

“Wake, awake, for night is flying” Hymn by Catherine Winkworth In last week’s blog I wrote about my quest to learn how to swim, and I promised to give an update from my lesson last Tuesday. I’m happy to report that I made some significant progress! Among other things, I was able to tread waterContinue reading “Awake (Part 2)”