• Being Human - Childhood - Hope - Light

    The Twenty-Dollar Bill

    August 22, 2014 - By 

    When we lived in St. Louis I taught kindergarten sunday school. At the beginning of class, as in many sunday schools, first we took attendance and then we collected a little something for charity. On one particular day we passed the small donation envelope around the room. Quarters fell in, dimes, on top of one another, ‘clink, clink . . . clink.’ It was little Lauren’s turn. She had found a twenty-dollar bill at a store earlier that week and had turned it in to the store’s ‘lost and found’. After a few days the store called her parents to…

  • Being Human - Childhood - Fear - Hope - Safety

    We’d like to put you in a home.

    August 19, 2014 - By 

    When I was a little girl, I always thought I would live near Chicago. It had never, in fact, occurred to me that any one of us might leave. But then, for me, there was California and then Missouri – Georgia and now Wisconsin. Finding a home and making a home has become very important to me. It might be also for many people. My friend’s nine-year old daughter continued to look at houses on zillow.com, for hours at a time– for three months after they had already moved. Was she still looking for a place to belong? A hundred…

  • Being Human - Darkness - Hope

    Everything is a Seed.

    August 15, 2014 - By 

    There is violence, racism and inequality in our world. It begins somewhere…with a seed of mistrust.   Who planted this seed? I did.   Because seeds begin with us and we plant them, intentionally or not. As a hopeful soul there are always seeds that I want to plant.  And those hardly ever grow.  It is hit or miss, basically. Along with all the other hopeful souls in the four-season world, the end of summer makes me excited for the bulbs which I can plant in September for the time when life returns after long winter. I gaze longingly at the…

  • Being Human - Fear - Hope

    “Is this all there is?”

    August 13, 2014 - By 

    Two years before my father died, he was refusing medical treatment. At that time it became increasingly apparent that if he did not choose treatment soon, his passing would be very soon after. It had not been very much time — perhaps only a year — since his own mother had died, just before her 103rd birthday. So there we were, in the hospital.   My father said to me “why didn’t I have 103 years?” And then: “Is this all there is??” To me, this was the most spectacular question I had ever heard — not to mention the…

  • Darkness - Hope - Light

    What We Can See In The Dark

    August 6, 2014 - By 

    “The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm. You have noticed that truth comes into this world with two faces – one that is sad with suffering and the other laughs. But it is the same face – laughing or weeping – as lightning illuminates the dark…” — Black Elk In the epic story of creation, it is said that on the first day the Divine separated light from dark. Such a beautiful image – but when you consider that the sun, moon and stars were not yet created until the fourth day – then which…

  • Childhood - Darkness - Fear - Hope

    Perspective and Innocence

    August 1, 2014 - By 

      Three days ago this happened: There is a family in Tel Aviv…many families in Tel Aviv…who go to the shelters with their children when the alarms sound. This family has two little boys — ages 4 and 7. One night this week the air sirens sounded. The family hurried to the shelter. It was 2:30 am. The sleepy 7 year-old said to his mom: “ema, which army do you like better…which army do you want to win”? Well, this young mother didn’t honestly know how to answer. How does one explain to a little boy about death and war…