Pondering Invasive Species in the Web of Life
Buffelgrass is taking over southern Arizona. This invasive perennial grass originated in Africa and was imported for erosion control and livestock grazing. Now it’s ravaging the wild lands in my area, overtaking native species in our desert landscape (you can see its...
What Life is Mine?
It’s Eastertide. Christ is risen, and among us in the form of the Holy Spirit. We are each richly blessed in our own ways, with food, clothing, shelter, health, meaningful work, and ministry opportunities…the list could go on for quite a while for each of us, I...
“Violence Is the Only Recourse of the Exhausted Mind”
It’s Holy Week, and I’ve got violence on my mind—not because of any intent to engage in it, but from an overabundance of it around me. The synoptic gospels tell us that during this week before his death, Jesus resorts to violence in overturning the business tables of...
Connecting Jesus’ Wisdom on the Righteous with His Jewish Heritage
Last week, a member of this year’s Beloved in the Desert cohort contemplated Psalm 37 in St. Philip’s Daily Bread reflection series. (I’ve shared one of my prior Daily Bread postings here before.) Maddie is converting to Judaism and connected the psalm with the Jewish...
Welcoming an Unexpected Gift on a Friday Afternoon
Last Friday I received an unexpected gift in the form of a phone call from Henry that he’d locked his keys in the car down in Nogales, an hour and a half away. The story actually begins more than two years ago, when I visited a dear friend in Colorado and lost a...
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