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Surprised by Gratitude
It happened again, the other night during lectio divina. We were about ten minutes into the communal silent prayer (fifteen more to go), in our individual responses to next week’s gospel reading, when it hit me. Literally, hit me—not roughly or harshly, but with an acute palpability....
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Amy, David, and My Brother
It’s the first thing most people have said. She was so young. Amy Winehouse was so young. I’ve had only a handful of conversations about Winehouse since her death—over dinner with movie group, at the hair salon—but they’ve followed a pattern. A brief bit about the cause of death—how could it not have been drug-related?—and then onto her talent, her hair, her voice....
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Jesus and My New Shoes
I’ve never been much of a shopper. That is, the kind of person who relaxes through retail, who spends happy hours wandering in and out of stores, maybe buying something—a scented candle, a scarf, a hostess gift to hold in reserve—maybe not. I’ve visited towns tailor-made (or -evolved) for that kind of browsing—Carmel-by-the-Sea....
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To Learn Is To Stay Alive
In the fall of 2006, I enrolled in a class I’d thought about taking for years. This class—a four-year program called Education for Ministry, administered by the graduate theology school at the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee, and held in Episcopal parishes nationwide—demanded three hours of seminar each week during the academic year, in addition to pages of reading. I looked forward to study, to community, to ....
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I’m Sorry. Aren’t I?
It’s a simple thing: we do wrong, and we apologize. Simple, yes, but not always easy. Indeed, the very ease of an apology can often signal its insincerity or glibness. Too many apologies are more about saving face, about getting out of the hot seat. For years, I’ve known how it feels to receive those “easy” apologies. How infuriating! How insulting, even! When my nephew has forgotten to do his dishes, say, or clean out the cat box, I’ve cut him off at the S word. “I don’t want an apology,” I’ve said. “I want the dishes done.” And with larger offenses, “sorry” can feel even more of a dodge....
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Current Issue
Issue 72
Memoir by Lauren Winner, Poetry by James Harpur, Art by Guy Chase and Adrian Wiszniewski
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