There is a particular moment in the musical “Hamilton” that grabs hold of me every time I listen to the soundtrack. Spoiler alert: It is toward the end of the play during the song “Quiet Uptown.” Alexander Hamilton’s life is in ruin, he feels responsible for his son’s death, his relationship…
Just a few weeks ago I felt like Betsy Ross. I dragged out my ancient Singer sewing machine, the one I’ve had since middle school, to make face masks. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a shortage of masks, so it was my patriotic duty to cut up my spare bedsheets and start sewing.
In any profession there is often a lot of jargon and acronyms thrown around to express a point or to not use long cumbersome names.
Grief. If there is anything I have learned as a pastor it is that grief compounds.
I am no stranger to getting up at zero dark thirty. But when my alarm goes off at 4 a.m. after not sleeping most of the night, it’s getting harder and harder to drag myself out of bed.
In all aspects of my life, I must ask myself: What really matters, what brings me joy, and what brings me to the fullest expression of who I am?
We are two months into the public health crisis of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Your life has been upended, as has mine.
Thomas Friedman of The New York Times wrote on April 20 that in a time of crisis, like we are in now, with people feeling frightened and uncertain, leadership doesn’t just matter more. It matters exponentially more.
It may miss the mark to call the current pandemic a nightmare. Nightmares are frightening and imaginary. The pandemic that continues to constrict our freedoms is not frightening for many nor imaginary for any. Those dissimilarities aside, it all seems nightmarish enough.
Are you afraid? I am. I’m afraid I might get sick with COVID-19. Worse, I’m afraid my parents might get sick with COVID-19 and not live through the experience. I’m also afraid I won’t survive the pandemic economically. If I can’t work, I won’t have income. If I can’t work, my employees won’t…
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” –John Watson, also known as Ian MacLaren.
Wisconsin’s insistence on holding in-person voting during the COVID-19 pandemic was an insult to democracy. Giving all citizens an equal say in our government is a fundamental tenet of our democracy. No one should have to risk their health to exercise their right to vote, yet that is what ju…
I grew up on a steep residential street in northern New Jersey. It was a great neighborhood that was mostly quiet. My siblings and I were the only kids on that portion of the block; our neighbor’s children all graduated from high school and were no longer living with their parents. To reach …
On an especially ordinary weekday afternoon, a message popped up in my inbox: “URGENT,” it read.
Though it was only a few short weeks ago that I wrote a playful piece about curling and spirituality for this column, in many ways it seems like a lifetime ago.
I hadn’t sewed in 27 years. It was in the summer of 1993, following a natural disaster in central Iowa, that my sewing machine was found in my home floating in 4 feet of water. I never replaced that sewing machine, maybe because replacing would remind me of the rising water I wanted to forge…
We are in the midst of an pandemic, but we cannot forget that our democracy is built on each citizen having the ability and the right to vote no matter what is happening in our great country.
As we settle into a new normal, things will continue as they are for longer than any of us thought they would. With the idea of this being long-term rather than short, we have had the time and opportunity to reflect on life as we have known it. Many of us are assessing what is important in a…
Our worlds have been turned upside down in recent weeks; the fear of contracting and or spreading the form of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has become an omnipresent reality for all of us. Fear and uncertainty seem to reign supreme at this time, which has brought out the worst and the bes…
“Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.”
When I first floated the idea, my 11-year-old nephew was all in. William lives with his parents in a city on the eastern seaboard. Like so many of us these days, he’s beginning to feel a little cooped up. A video conference with some of his Minnesota family struck William as an excellent dis…
As I am hunkering down in my social isolation, I’ve been spending way too much time online.
On May 2, 1863, Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson led 30,000 Confederate troops through a thickly forested expanse of Spotsylvania County toward Chancellorsville, Virginia.
Welcome to March. It’s not winter, and it’s not spring. It’s tournament, tax, spring break and spring training time. The noises I hear coming from the environment signal an early spring could march us right into April. The sights and sounds of the resident cardinal high up in the evergreen t…
The attorney general is the chief law officer of the government who represents the government in litigation and serves as its principal legal adviser. The attorney general of the United States pledges when taking office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all …
Instead of giving up chocolate or alcohol this Lenten season, we at Glendale United Methodist Church are giving up the idea that we — as Christians — are better than others. I’m sure you’ve had a holier-than-thou encounter where God’s love was lost in judgment — probably hypocritical judgmen…
To say that the coronavirus has raised alarms would be an understatement.
At this time of year there are so many signs of spring. Even though the calendar says it’s still winter, and many parts of the country are still covered with a thick blanket of snow, there are signs of spring all over the place.
I have been listening with anticipation as updates have made their way into the media about The Crossings, the curling club and event center that has been proposed here in Savage.
On a recent road trip I finally got to see the Hoover Dam. Sure, I learned about it in school and watched documentaries on TV, but it is much more impressive when you are standing on it.
Sometimes I think the children’s message at church is meant as much for the adults as for the children. This past Sunday, the pastor began to talk to the kids about the importance of action. For example, it is not enough to love someone; you must show it through action.
Another retailer bites the dust. Word this month is that Pier 1 Imports is closing over half of its Twin Cities stores. It’s not that I’m a big shopper, but every time a local or national brand store front goes down, it just feels like another punch in the community development gut. Business…
Looking around at our young, still developing suburbs, I see wide, wild fields being dug up for the foundations of new, large single-family homes with sloping driveways, expansive roofs and well-lit, grand entrances. Or large, multi-story luxury senior apartments and condominiums with beauti…
In all my 15 years of ministry, I have never been forwarded, clipped, or emailed an article as many times as this one: “Cottage Grove church to usher out gray-haired members in effort to attract more young parishioners.”
A local business owner informed me one day that life is nothing more than an illusion. I considered punching him in the nose to test his theory. But fearing that his very real pain would lead to a very real lawsuit against me, I let him skate.
Have you heard of the Texas vs. U.S. case? According to a July 9 article from NPR, this case has the potential to wreak havoc on the U.S. health care system and cause millions to lose their health coverage. According to a Jan. 3 Huffington Post article, Texas vs. U.S. will be decided by the …
It’s January. In the feminist calendar, January is a time we acknowledge the advancements women have made in the ability to control their own fertility.
Do you love books? You may have attended one or more of the popular Club Book author events sponsored by our seven-county regional library system. Club Book brings bestselling and award-winning authors to audiences across the library system throughout the year, highlighting the authors’ rece…
My husband and I watch too much TV. Digital video recorders have made it too easy for us to always have something to watch, so we waste most evenings with pre-recorded crime shows: “NCIS” (original, Los Angeles or New Orleans), “Hawaii Five-O,” “The Rookie,” “FBI,” etc. Recently we added Bri…
On Galveston Island a couple of years ago, we stayed at a public campground right on the beach. A dune was the only thing that separated my RV from the springtime waves of the Gulf. As I heard the surf, I could feel my accumulated stress and tension melt from my body.
I come from a mental attitude that the glass is always half-full. Last week, as news outlets were discussing the end of the 2010 to 2019 decade, some pundits labeled it the “decade of distrust.” While I can empathize with multiple points of view, I like to put that type of label through my o…
I am not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions. All too often we make too many goals and don’t have a plan of action on how to get there. Without the path, motivation is lost, and our intentions are put on the back burner.
Deeply embedded in the human soul is a longing to be with the right people, at the right time, in the right place. The holiday season heightens our sensitivity to this passion.
I have been honored to volunteer as a voter protection lawyer for many elections. My belief is most Americans want to do what they can to protect our Constitution. But why do certain people want to impede a fair voting process?
Fear has long been a problem for the human creature. Sure, fear helped to protect our neanderthal ancestors from saber-toothed tigers and to this day heightens our senses in the presence of real danger. But the trouble is that the emotion that triggers fight or flight can also paralyze, dece…
It’s that time of year again — the health insurance renewal season.
Thanksgiving is past, and Christmas was here before we even finished our turkey. If we are so eager to rush the season, maybe we could make the peace and joy we yearn for at Christmas part of everyday living.
After last November’s elections, a headline in the Star Tribune read, “After nearly a century, ERA might finally pass.” The Equal Rights Amendment simply states, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on the account of sex.”
Earlier this week, the Better Business Bureau issued a warning about an online secret-sister gift exchange. While most of us probably have participated in secret gift exchanges with people we actually know — a college dormitory, family and social groups come to mind — I shudder to think that…
