Category Archives: Uncategorized

Run-ins with the Pope

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2015-09-24 18.28.39I arrived in Manhattan two hours later than I’d anticipated; a severe accident on the interstate in South Carolina made me miss my reserved flight, but I hopped on the next plane to the Big Apple without incident.

The last weekend in September was the one I’d chosen to make my yearly visit to my brother in NYC, and this trip had the added bonus of catching a best friend’s baby shower. It also turned out to be the exact span during which the Pope would visit the city that never sleeps. Continue reading →

dogs & the divine

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  My sweet friend, Paul, wonders about the eternal staying power of our dear canine (and other animal) friends.
A dog lover from the time I could walk, the story of Balto first captured my imagination as an elementary student; I was–clearly–overcome when I spied the statue in Central Park yesterday.
Instead of having a unique, embodied soul, I tell myself that our furry companions’ personalities may show up again in another pet, part of the foggy hint of the divine hidden throughout all creation.
  In my husband’s senior pictures, he brought his companion, Cinder, a courageous and loving German Shepherd with somewhat unusual coloring. I never met this sweet favorite childhood dog of Jordan’s, except that when I went to a shelter in Durham a decade later, I met and adopted on the spot a courageous and loving German Shepherd with somewhat unusual coloring.
Though animals pass away like the flowers of the field, in their lives they show us the beauty of God.

Paul Nicholson's avatarINTER ALIA

Balto

BALTO – An ICON of Canine Magnificence

A dear friend, and priest of the Church, recently posted a picture of herself with a statute of Balto in Central Park in the  Manhattan,  New York. Using Balto as a backdrop she communicates to us all the uncanny ability to see an icon in the most ordinary of things.   I suspect she knew when she posted the picture that Balto’s accomplishments were legendary and that his service brought about the inspiration for the annual sled race commonly called the “Iditarod”.  I think Balto is a true Icon in that his statue represents more than a tribute to a husky sled dog.  It shows something inspired by the divine.  Balto did what many of us humans would shrink from doing and that is he was able to navigate near whiteout conditions (a snow storm) to deliver a serum desperately needed for a diphtheria…

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The Gift of Joy and Wonder

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from my wise internet friend Robert: “When did we stop asking questions? I suppose we wanted the questions to stop because they annoyed us so we began making proclamations instead. I think God would rather that we ask amazed questions rather than make exhausted declarations. I think He would have us wondering aloud at the beauty of it all. I think Jesus welcomes children because we adults get too tired.”

RHendrickson's avatarA Desert Father

Recently, Karrie and I adopted two young boys.  We have been in the adoption process for some time yet the news still came as a surprise (which we received while on vacation in Tibet).  We got home and two days later were meeting the amazing birth family.  Our life has been a bit topsy-turvy since then – yet in a wonderful way.  I have not really had the chance to write or even time to reflect it seems as this rather dramatic change in our life has unfolded.  Yet, over and over again, I have found myself touched by one particular thing – the fresh joy with which children view the world.

There is a tiredness to life that sets in over time.  Perhaps it is jaded-ness or perhaps it is ennui – whatever one calls it the result is the same.  Life looks less like living and more like…

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