I just got off a zoom event with Ted Wardlaw, the president of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He ended our time with a quote from one of my favorite poets, Rainer Maria Rilke. Let everything happen to you. How could I not let everything happen to me? What control do I have? If it’s going… Continue reading No feeling is final.
One of the joys of being a pastor is watching your former youth grow into the person God created them to be. Sometimes, I get to officiate at their weddings or baptize their children. Sometimes, I get to bless their first homes. Sometimes, I run into them in random airports. Sometimes, I get to see… Continue reading Former Youth and Photography
I miss live music. I’m not a huge concert go-er, but every Sunday I feasted on the Word, on the Bread of Life and Cup of Salvation, and on live, communal music created out of the sheer joy of making music. I say feasted, past tense, because since March 15, 2020, the only music I… Continue reading Driveway Concerts
As I said in this post, August 17-19 was NOT a good few days. Without going in to personal details, I learned: Rampant COVID-19 cases in NYC inundated hospitals to such a degree that psych wards were transitioned away from psych care, leaving less beds for the mentally ill in a crisis. Suicidal patients came… Continue reading Beautiful Chaos or Chaotic Beauty?
Alejandro R. Garcia-Rivera’s book, The Community of the Beautiful: A Theological Aesthetics continues to stretch my mind from the first time I picked it up, just before the pandemic locked us all down in mid-March. The idea of finding beauty in difference, beauty in struggle, beauty in contrasts, beauty in mystery provides a balm for… Continue reading Beautiful Bread, Beautiful Community
August 17-19 was a terrible three days of unknowing in our family. The story is not mine to tell in public, but suffice it to say that I prayed and cried and was on the phone more than normal. WAY more than normal. During those days, I found myself wandering back to a classic book… Continue reading Risotto al Carciofi
First Presbyterian Church of Austin partners with Manos de Cristo in feeding hungry families in Austin. Food on the First has long been our way of stocking their pantry on the Sunday we celebrate communion at both services. Feeding others as Christ feeds us roots our spiritual practices as a congregation. With the pandemic came… Continue reading Soup á la Simone Weil
Even though I love to cook, I have never been a big fan of grocery shopping. It was just another errand on a long list that needed to get done. Buy what you need and get out as quickly as possible has been my mantra my entire adult life. Until the pandemic. Like so many… Continue reading A Different Kind of Nature Walk
When people say, “I hate that music,” they are really saying, “I hate that culture.” Saliers, Don and Emily Saliers. A Song to Sing, A Life to Live: Music: Reflections on Music as a Spiritual Practice. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019), 103. This sentence has been haunting me all summer. I read it in Don and… Continue reading “I hate that music!”
INGREDIENTS Pasta of choice. (For recipes like this, I prefer bronze cut whole wheat pastas like fusilli. Both the bronze cut and the shape make them hold sauce better. I happen to like the taste of whole wheat pasta more than regular.) 4 cups chicken stock Smoked salmon, cut into bite-sized pieces (Enough for what… Continue reading Smoked Salmon Pasta or “I Thought I Hated Mac & Cheese!”
palettes, pots, & pens 