About twelve years ago, I spent a long January weekend on Topsail Island, North Carolina, at a spiritual retreat. Twelve relative strangers came together in a large beach house to listen, pray, meditate, share, and explore our connections to the Divine.  One of our leaders, Donald Engstrom, was a big bear of a guy with… Continue reading

Betina was exhausted. As a beat cop in a small town, she had spent her day answering a series of difficult calls – domestic disturbances, a bar fight, and a car chase over a broken tail light. All she wanted to do was go home, take a bath, snuggle her kids, and watch American Idol.… Continue reading

 Listen here. In my first semester of seminary, I took a course in systematic theology from Dr. James Cone, known as the father of black liberation theology. Dr. Cone is a force of nature – a slight black man from the backwoods of Arkansas, with incredible passion and intellect, and who at age 73 can… Continue reading

 Listen here. Last week, we started cobbling together our own universal translators. Unlike the Star Trek universe that Gene Roddenberry created, we aren’t equipped to automatically understand the many different languages of many cultures, and even if we were, we wouldn’t always know what people really meant. What we know is that real communication relies… Continue reading

 Listen here. Many things would be a lot easier if we lived in the Star Trek universe. You see, in the Star Trek universe, it is important to be able to communicate with sentient beings from other planets and galaxies – in English, of course – and thus, Gene Roddenberry created a universe where everyone… Continue reading

I have a confession to make. I am just nutso crazy in love with America. I have been in love with America since I was a little girl. It has been in my blood since 1630, since my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather John Winthrop came to… Continue reading

I would like to tell you a couple of stories. The first involves an artist; she became the director of a non-profit arts organization that uses primarily volunteers in a small, tight-knit community. As part of her contract, she was given two years to complete a list of goals that included viability of the organization,… Continue reading

REMEMBER me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land; When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay. Remember me when no more day by day You tell me of our future that you planned: Only remember me; you understand… Continue reading

The twitch begins early – January, really. Sometimes December 25, if the right gift goes to the right person. But the twitch definitely begins in January, when the first catalogs appear in the mailbox. It doesn’t matter how much snow appears – the plans begin. On February 2nd, the words “the groundhog saw his shadow”… Continue reading

It was 1991. A friend of a friend had moved from our relatively safe haven in Durham, North Carolina, to a tiny village in Clay County, way out in the westernmost county of the state, deep in the Smoky Mountains. He had taken a job managing a store no one else wanted, and he figured… Continue reading