The other day I took my grandson Jude to my office. He loves going there, because the company that has graciously allowed me to have office space also has a break room for its employees. It’s loaded with all kinds of fun activities like Foosball, bumper pool, ping pong, and video games. We had a...Read More

In my last post I reflected on the “losses without conclusion” I and many others are facing in these days of COVID. I was captivated by an interview I heard with social scientist, Dr. Pauline Boss, who has pioneered research on this idea of “ambiguous loss”. Her early work was summarized in the book Ambiguous...Read More

Last night I developed a fever along with aches and chills. I assumed that COVID had finally caught up with me. I have been sick with a respiratory illness for 5 straight weeks…going through COSTCO level amounts of Kleenex, Advil and Mucinex. And I’ve taken 5 COVID tests assuming that it had gotten me, including...Read More

Disillusions all come from within…from the failure of some dear and secret hope. The world makes no promises; we only dream it does; and when we wake, we cry! Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie All over the world, in the next few weeks, many children, likely between the ages of 5 and 9, will suddenly become...Read More

I was not prepared for my transition. This, even though I saw it coming many months in advance. It didn’t sneak up on me. I certainly thought I was prepared for the change, my retirement from many decades of one type of work. I wasn’t. And neither are many of you as you face a...Read More

Pain has a disorienting effect on just about everything, doesn’t it? Take, for instance, the misfortune of a chronic illness. You face the double whammy of physical discomfort coupled with the realization that you might not be able to do your job or pursue your career in the same way anymore. “Now what?” might be...Read More

I blew it. I failed my congregation at one of the most emotionally charged moments of our nation’s history, the 9/11 terrorist attacks. On September 16, just a few days after that horrific event, the sermon I gave was tone deaf. Instead of offering comfort, I challenged and confronted. I warned against over-reaction and made...Read More

Sometimes you see it coming. A dark storm on the horizon gathering intensity until it overwhelms you, rearranging life as you know it. Other times it hits you like a sledgehammer out of nowhere, knocking the sense and hope out of you. Life crises come at us in various horrible ways, leaving us punch drunk...Read More

I just left the side of my friend who is dying. I doubt that he will last through the day. I have done this so many times…visited someone in hospice, sitting in awkward silence as they breathe the raspy, rattling, uneven breath of one who is near the end. Is this the last one?…this one?…this...Read More

A few weeks ago I googled “books about life transitions”. It has been a year and a half since I began the biggest transition of my life, my retirement from 42 years of pastoral work. I, somewhat arrogantly, assumed I would simply turn out the light and close the door on one phase of my...Read More