Sharing insights and inspiration that happen over a cup of tea

Sharing insights and inspiration that happen over a cup of tea

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Category: Love

  • Tempering the siren call of the ice cream truck

    On the shore at the bay there is a jungle gym area where my daily visits usually include a lesson learned in observing children at play. Yesterday’s lesson was fit for America’s Funniest Home Videos. A group of seven young children between the ages of two and eight were having a great time climbing the plastic…

  • Love, like bread, needs to be made and remade

    My mother was a wonderful mom, a beautiful and compassionate person, but, honestly, she was not the best of cooks. It wasn't for a want of trying. There was never a night or a Sunday afternoon when she didn’t put a home cooked meal on the table in spite of working every day. Granted, she…

  • LIving with the paradox of a sunset

    It seems an unlikely marriage, beauty and despair, but creations of the human spirit in crisis are among the most meaningful and beautiful in existence. Art, music, literature, even prayer, flowing from a heart of pain, resonate with creatures who must face their mortality with every passing moment. What are we to do with this…

  • Ask and God will wrap your heart in love

    Walking in the woods where I came from was not an unusual pastime for a child. Even today the    sound of twigs cracking underfoot and the smell of mulching leaves brings back memories of afternoons walking the trails of the Heldebergs with my father. Maybe it was the simplicity and beauty of the experience or perhaps…

  • Time is an investment in love’s garden

    In a town near mine, there is a home unique in this area of sandy soil. It hosts a lovely English cottage garden. I noticed it when I stopped in a store nearby. An elderly gentleman was wielding pruning shears, preparing the garden for the full bloom of summer, when he caught me admiring his little…

  • Contributing to the sacred trust that is family

    “Make yourself useful.”    That was my father’s favorite phrase for reminding me that being part of a family carried responsibilities. Child or not, I could, and should, certainly contribute by setting and cleaning off the table, dusting the furniture, putting away groceries, and keeping my room at least clean enough that the health department wouldn’t…

  • Attention is the mark of love

    There is a story of a pastor who decided to hire a gardener for the poorly kept parish grounds. Year round the gardener worked diligently, preparing the soil, weeding, planting, pruning and nurturing the plants with great attention, until one fine day the pastor strolled out into the flowering garden with a neighboring priest, anxious to…

  • Being sparks of hope for those who feel abandoned

    In all of human experience I think there is nothing more painful than feeling abandoned. The gnawing pain of loneliness, the feeling of being unloved and unlovable, robs life of hope and purpose and intensifies any suffering we may be going through. It was my experience when depression took over a significant part of my…

  • Losing love changes things

    It doesn’t seem possible that my dad could be gone 16 years already. But every year, as Valentine’s Day rolls around, I am reminded of the last Valentine’s Day we spent together, him in a Hospice bed, me in tears hoping that he could at least sense how much I loved him. He would die…

  • Every community needs a Director of First Impressions

    Yesterday, while visiting my sister-in-law who is caring for her mom—a Hospice patient—I heard a   funny, but also disturbing, story about what happened when my sister-in-law called the parish to ask for a priest to come and visit. The conversation went something like this: “Hello?”  (no introduction) “Oh … Hi, is this the Church of the…