A commonly held belief these days is that post-pandemic we will likely not get back to normal. Things will have been so fundamentally altered that relationships, careers, lifestyles, hopes and dreams will be, at least, modified. I wrote about this topic a number of months ago (which feels more like years ago). This season is...Read More

Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash One of my most cherished times of the day is in the early hours, just after waking up. I look forward to my boring, but comfortably same, breakfast of yogurt, granola and berries and maybe a homemade bran muffin (the best ever, with dried cherries). I then take some...Read More

If you and I were to sit down for a cup of coffee, you’d probably not notice anything out of the ordinary about me. I’d come across as stable and fairly put together. And, largely, I am. Outwardly I’m settled, albeit subdued. But apparently my body has been keeping score, according to Dr. Bessel Van...Read More

Sometimes leaders’ actions are deadly. Their words get peopled killed, they kill ideas, they kill relationships. Maybe not via premeditated murder but, for sure, through negligence. I hate writing this. I have been stewing for days since the terrorism and seditious attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.  I have wanted to reflect in...Read More

You know how Google and Amazon and Facebook and the whole internet knows what to send you? How you watch one YouTube thing about some dude cutting down a tree, and for months your feeds are overrun with videos of lumberjacks and sawmills? (This is happening to me in real time.) Well, right now it...Read More

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…Alfred Tennyson I’m straining to hear that whisper. It’s faint, but I think I hear it. Hope is never a luxury. It is essential. I shudder when I think that relief may be deferred much further into the new year. That...Read More

Dancing through life Skimming the surface Gliding where turf is smooth Life’s more painless For the brainless Why think too hard? When it’s so soothing I chuckle every time I hear those lyrics in the song Dancing Through Life from the hit Broadway show Wicked. It’s sung by a rather glib and cocky young man...Read More

I’m on a bit of a roll talking about leadership. A calling that leads to some form or title of leadership has always fascinated me, and the development of leaders has always been a concern of mine. So, you can imagine how much I’ve been thinking about that topic recently. Good, courageous, intelligent leadership is...Read More

I hear you. After I wrote last week about what I believe is the hardest leadership job in the world, some of you pushed back. Some suggested parenting, specifically mothering, is the toughest job. Others suggested teachers have it the hardest. You might be right. But I still contend that carrying any title that comes...Read More

I’m about to return to church. I retired from pastoral work on May 31st of this year, 2020, after a 42-year ministry career. The agreed upon plan was for me to distance myself from our church for 6 months to allow time for the new senior pastor and the church to acclimate without me hanging...Read More