All of the words matter. The words we read, the words that form our conversations with others, the words we listen to, the words that flow as private inner monologues, the words we type out into the social media universe: Words are the way we describe and make sense of the world around us. T…
After 30 years, my husband, born in Colorado and raised in Utah, still feels like an outsider in Minnesota. Although he drinks pop and answers “you bettcha,” he never played duck, duck, gray duck. Worse, he will never be a Vikings fan. He hasn’t assimilated.
A few years ago I was given the book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” by Marie Kondo. This was my first foray into the Marie Kondo effect. Kondo promotes organizing your home by categories such as clothes, shoes, papers, books and dishe…
So now we are to understand that Betsy Ross was sort of a villain? Poor woman!
The latest Gallup poll shows that immigration is the most important problem facing the U.S. today. This topic continues to polarize the American public, and it is front and center in regards to the 2020 presidential election. The argument lingers with both sides convinced that they are corre…
I just came back from leading a multigenerational group from St. James Lutheran Church to the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota. The purpose was to experience God’s creation in the context of a Christian community. Each day we began with devotions and prayer. Then we hiked, toured, ph…
And it still seems like only yesterday my brother and I were glued to the TV in the wee hours of the morning, waiting with great anticipation for the two astronauts to descend out of the tiny moon lander. After Neil Armstrong said those famous words, “The Eagle has landed,” we could hear che…
Does this sound familiar to any of you? I heard it growing up, especially when things were not going as I had hoped they would. Well-meaning friends and relatives would often say to me, “Let go and let God,” as though that was supposed to make everything better. In the moment that seemed too…
I saw a wonderful human interest piece on a Sunday news program a few weeks ago involving a widow from Alabama who entered a barbecue restaurant by herself in her hometown. She was followed into the restaurant by three young adult men who sat at a nearby table. One of the young men glanced o…
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, there are many advantages to electric vehicles, including lower fuel costs, lower maintenance costs, lower carbon dioxide emissions, more responsive acceleration and convenience of refueling (recharging) at home.
As a white woman who grew up in mostly white Midwestern neighborhoods, went to schools attended largely by white people and works in a field dominated by white men, I haven’t spent a lot of time reflecting on racism. Racism can be defined as a racial prejudice that is backed by a system of l…
I have such high expectations. But I often forget that we humans are evolutionary beings, kin to all the other forms of mammalian lifeforms on the planet. Our comparatively large brains are the organs through which all things human flow, and our brains manage many critical systems at once.
One’s religious persuasion is distinguished by the nature of the bridge that links people with the divine. Simple footbridges dot the religious landscape in this regard. Various deities are positioned, so to speak, on the other side of a shallow bog. Then a corresponding religious system for…
When the movie “The Bucket List,” starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, began showing in theaters, people quickly responded to the narrative by creating their own bucket lists, to-do lists of all the experiences they wanted to have before they die.
At age 50, I qualified for my AARP Card, entitling me to senior citizen discounts. Years later, I earned my Curmudgeon Card. This license allows us old folks to complain about even the smallest, most meaningless things. Because of our longevity and years of experience, there is usually a ker…
Summer is always road construction season in Minnesota. I grew up with a dad who was a foreman in road construction. My brothers both work for the same company. We have, all of our lives, lived the intensity of the season of road construction. As my dad reminded us often, “It’s where your br…
On a recent road trip out west, I stopped late in the day at a campground in the middle of North Dakota. Entering the small camp office, I noticed a man wearing a fluorescent lime shirt and a tattered straw cowboy hat. His name was Paul, and he was quite the character.
The energy of possibility is far stronger and more exciting than when we are talking about our issues.
This Sunday, Christians celebrate Pentecost, marking the moment when the 12 apostles were empowered by the Holy Spirit to go forth and proclaim the good news. The apostles moved from a moment of fear and trembling to a lifetime of becoming emboldened messengers of the Gospel.
There are only a handful of birds that elicit pure excitement and joy when it shows up at your backyard feeding station.
It is a Memorial Day week, a time in which we celebrate our veterans and our democracy. Our veterans have protected our democracy from outside threats for over two centuries.
Do you have all the friends you need? Chances are that you are among the majority of American adults who recognize they are struggling with fewer close friendships than they want. As emotional beings, all of us are biologically designed to connect to others in and outside our families of ori…
The year is 1869. New York City: A railroad tycoon learns of a bank for sale in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. His son, Eli, a recent graduate of Harvard University, has the cultural and business training necessary to represent his father’s interests.
I was at book club last week and after discussing this month’s book and sharing some stories, our conversation turned to current events. Even though most of my group are past their childbearing years, the outright ban on abortions passed by the Alabama Legislature last week felt like a full-…
Composting is a mixture of decaying plants and vegetables that is added to soil to improve its quality. I know this from my last summer at college. I needed a few more credits to actually graduate, so my professors loaned me their spare bedroom, and I took three classes on the pass/fail scal…
Yelling at my mom was not how I expected to end that day in February, but I’m glad I did. When the family matriarch is preparing to throw in the towel after recovery from her first (yes, first) major surgery, you can’t keep going about the day and do nothing. So after getting the message tha…
It wasn’t until the 2000 election that I ever thought much about our voting system. After watching Florida’s hanging chads, seeing huge lines in some states where people queued for hours and hearing stories of people claiming they were unable to vote for no discernible reason, I wanted to kn…
Recently I published my first book, “Lighting Your Way, With Love: A father shares faith and wisdom with his son.” I write from the dual perspective of a father whose oldest son has gone to college and as a pastor who has been walking alongside folks on their spiritual journeys for over two …
Political activity is heating up for the oncoming presidential election.
This is probably not news to you, but Americans are at an all-time high when it comes to stress, worry and anger.
Like many people, I awoke last Sunday ready for the Easter season to begin with all of its signs of joy, hope and rebirth. My mood was quickly dampened by the news of the terrorist attacks on Christians celebrating the Easter liturgy at various churches in Sri Lanka. To date, nearly 300 peop…
As we prepare for Easter, let us not forget to pray for the Christians of France who were devastated by the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral this past Monday during Easter week. TV reports showed thousands of people stood on the other side of the Seine singing hymns and praying that their bel…
There is something about life transitions that makes them more difficult the older we become. I have noticed this with my clients as well as myself, and I’m certain that it’s not a simple function of declining vitality or a well-earned preference for our own habits. What is it about change i…
Outrage is all the rage these days. Opportunities to take offense are sought out like electronic charging-stations in airport terminals. Plugging into hurt feelings charges the soul, especially when you can vent your angst to the world on social media. Feels so good.
What makes good public policy?
While national politics seem to dominate the news cycle in most venues, I want to talk today about our state government and the work that is going on right now in St. Paul.
Darkness is an enveloping kind of thing. Darkness can take over not only a space but a person’s attitude and life. I wonder how people in Barrrow, Alaska, do it. There is a point in the middle of their winter when darkness is present every hour of every day for two full months.
So did we make it? Has spring sprung? I ask with caution because this is Minnesota and we know from experience that snow is still a possibility into April. Although I’m not about to make any grand pronouncements yet regarding the end of winter, I will say that these warm days have been such …
One word — plastics — was the career advice in the 1967 movie, “The Graduate.” Sixty years later, that advice is haunting us. We’re being buried by synthetic chemicals molded into bottles, jars, toys, packaging materials, plumbing supplies, vinyl siding and significant portions of everything…
Perspective is a complicated matter: the opinions we hold and live out through our actions, the things we value, our individual sense of how we think the world should be as well as our own sense of what we feel is right and what is wrong. We all have a right to our perspective. However, lear…
“Turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel.” This is one of the admonitions said to us as we are signed with ashes on our foreheads during Ash Wednesday — no small directive for any of us to follow. What do I need to turn away from in my life at this moment? My hair-trigger temper? My jud…
Not long ago, my friend Michelle and I formed an informal two-person book club. We recognized that we both loved talking about the novels we were reading but had never quite fit into standard book clubs. So we read a book together and talk about it over coffee whenever, however and wherever …
While driving into my subdivision this afternoon, I came up to the first intersection only to have to slam on my breaks for a school bus stopping on the opposite corner. That didn't bother me except for the woman sitting in her minivan across the intersection parked at the corner and blockin…
Sociologists are telling us what baby boomers know intuitively: The family meal is in eclipse. Many Americans who have traversed earth’s sod for at least half a century can bear witness to bygone days when family dinner at home was nearly as consistent as first hour at school. Most days of t…
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in the 1963 Gray v. Sanders case stated, “The conception of political equality from the Declaration of Independence, to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, to the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Nineteenth Amendments can mean only one thing — one person, o…
I’ve been thinking about love. Probably you have been, too. I don’t want to take away from the chocolates and the cards and the shiny jewelry of Valentine’s Day last week. But I have been thinking about a different kind of love.
I learned a long time ago that in ministry, as in life, you can’t make everybody happy. From time to time, folks leave anonymous messages on the church’s answering machine expressing their displeasure. As a leader, there is not much follow-up that you can do if people won’t own their opinion…
The legislative session is in full swing, and my activist calendar is filling up. I couldn’t be happier.
My life experiences taught me fear was a bad thing, even though it kept me safe. What I did not learn until much later was that it also kept me paralyzed and unable to do the things I desired. It took me a long time to learn that fear is a good thing and is needed to alert us to real danger,…
Is it just me and my love for news, or is anybody else frustrated on how linking to a news site from social media may or may not bring you to the news?
