Poem for a Sunday Morning

February 16                                               An early morning fog. In fair weather, the shy past keeps its distance. Old loves, old regrets, old humiliations look on from afar. They stand back under the trees. No

Poem for a Sunday Morning

The Facts of Life That you were born and you will die. That you will sometimes love enough and sometimes not. That you will lie if only to yourself. That you will get tired. That you will learn most from the situations you did not choose. That there will be some things that move you

Poem for a Sunday Morning

Pocket Poem {Ted Kooser) If this comes creased and creased again and soiled as if I’d opened it a thousand times to see if what I’d written here was right, it’s all because I looked too long for you to put in your pocket. Midnight says the little gifts of loneliness come wrapped by nervous

Beware the False Dichotomy

I read an article today that talked about the leadership challenge of navigating the difference between “wartime” and “peacetime” leadership. It’s not a valid question because it’s based on a false dichotomy. The distinction between “wartime” and “peacetime” suggests a dualistic, either/or approach to leadership. The discussion centered on working with the intersection of these

#50 – Forgiveness

The Prodigal’s Mother Speaks to God {Allison Funk) When he returned a second time, the straps of his sandals broken, his robe stained with wine, it was not as easy to forgive. By then his father was long gone himself, leaving me with my other son, the sullen one whose anger is the instrument he

#43 – Compassion

Pandemic What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath— the most sacred of times? Cease from travel. Cease from buying and selling. Give up, just for now, on trying to make the world different than it is. Sing. Pray. Touch only those to whom you commit your life. Center down. And

#37 – Eat What You Want (It’s your birthday)

Years ago when I was downplaying another birthday as “just another day” and “not a big deal,” a friend suggested otherwise. She said that the day of our birth is inherently important because it is the day we started being us. It matters that we are here and because that wasn’t always so – and

#29 – Little Things Are Big Things

Mossbawn: Sunlight {Seamus Heaney} There was a sunlit absence. The helmeted pump in the yard heated its iron, water honeyed in the slung bucket and the sun stood like a griddle cooling against the wall of each long afternoon. So, her hands scuffled over the bakeboard, the reddening stove sent its plaque of heat against

#15 – You are the one you’ve been waiting for

#15 in the series, “50 Ideas Worth Fighting For. Love After Love {Derek Walcott} The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was

Welcome

To welcome something is to say “yes” to it. It is to encourage its existence and to join with it in a positive spirit of participation. I choose this word as a companion to accompany me during these final celebratory and transitional weeks of this year. I think of it as a guidepost to which