The days melt into one another here in the Southwest. Temperatures are hitting triple digits many days. It's easy for tempers to flare, bodies to flag. Somedays I wonder what holds the center, keeping us from spinning off into lifelessness and the violence of our social division.New Mexico, like much of the west is in … Continue reading Love After Love

One day the boulder is pushed off your chest or it disappears like morning dew at noon or manna in the desert. After confessing a lifetime of sorrows, traumas and troubles and crying a sea of salt tears you arrive like a newborn shivering and radiant on the shore of your soul, breathing again. For … Continue reading Alleluia

Healer of our every illlight of each tomorrowgive us peace beyond our fearand hope beyond our sorrow ( Hymnal: A Worship Book, #377) Still reeling from the Atlanta killings, our country has now seen gun violence migrate west of the Mississippi within a week. Boulder. Ten killed. More innocent lives lost. A grocery store. People … Continue reading Healer of our every ill

I've been back a month now, from my writing time in Northern New Mexico. It was a time of daily plumbing the depths of my own fears, imaginations, enthusiasms, loneliness and creativity. I remember the colorful cabin with great fondness—it's only heat source a fireplace. At times I missed the ease of flipping a thermostat. … Continue reading At the River Clarion

We are still in Lent. The season of our sorrow has a light at the end of the tunnel as a country, but the struggles are still pernicious and perennial. COVID-19. War. Environmental destruction. Racism. White supremacy. Poverty. Sexism. A climate emergency. Meanwhile. This season is about a deep introspection of our own complicity. As … Continue reading To Dust