Category: Uncategorized

Today is the day that ought to have been my birthday, by all rights. Today is the first day of fall. More importantly, to my young self, today is Frodo and Bilbo Baggin’s collective birthday. Do you have any idea how much it would’ve mattered to me to be the SAME as those two notable halflings in such an important event? I used to try to work out with the time zones and Zaire (my place of birth) whether I had REALLY been born on the 22nd and this incontrovertible FACT was masked by my impossibly-distant place of birth. Or maybe bad record keeping. Or SOMETHING.

Of course now, thinking about it, I’m pretty sure my mom wouldn’t have minded. I was three weeks later than expected. My due date was Labor Day. I used to think this just meant my mom was bad at counting, until I myself went…

If you’ve been attending public worship here, then you know that the theme for this summer is “growth.” We are talking about spiritual growth, personal growth, about growth in the church, and about how things grow – what it means in our culture and society to grow.

It seemed fitting to me, then, that as I was crafting sermons and messages on issues of growth, the publishing offices of the Vatican should release Laudato Si’, a Papal Encyclical letter addressed to the whole of the human community. His Holiness writes that “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.” These letters, often written merely for the Catholic Community, speak to the critical moments and concerns of our time. In this case, the letter reaches beyond Catholicism, beyond even Christianity and into our common human…

Another election is over and I was somewhat surprised to learn via the Stoneham Community Facebook Group that some people didn’t know that there had been an election. In further discussion, I discovered that even more people had no idea who the candidates were, nor did they know who the elected officials were. There was a lot of talk about improving communication from the town and many people seemed to think that if there was a good, informal way to meet the elected officials in a relaxed setting possibly outside of town hall, that they would be amendable to attending.

I thought this was a great idea, and coincidentally I had a meeting scheduled with the Stoneham Theatre about having collaborative events with the town. This lead to another thought: I was already planning to host a pre-town meeting designed to take the mystery out of the annual Town Meetings…

Spending my lunches at daycare (theoretically nursing Thane, but in reality just giving both of my boys big hugs and playing with them) has reminded me of Grey’s first year, when I did the same thing. There was a little boy at daycare name Gabriel. (Long “a”, like “Gah-briel” not “Gay-briel”)

Gabriel was about three at the time. The age Grey is now. He had big, dark eyes and curly dark hair. He also had behavior problems and didn’t talk. He would throw violent, inarticulate fits. He grew to really like me, and I to like him. He would stand next to me when I nursed Grey, and I would talk to him. I would ask him questions and, unfamiliar with child development, be contented with the few words he gave back to me. His face lit up when he saw me. I was afraid for him. Rubertina does her…

Rather distressed of Heart, I have been reading of the travails of that redoubtable Charitie, World-Vision. I will admit to a Confusion of Feeling engendered by these Trials. I know World-Vision of old, having served there as a Volunteer, and knowing that my Father’s Employment was for some Years centered there. Too, there is good Work that is done in the Name of the Christ by these Agents of the Gospel. Much of Povertie, Strife, and Sickness is eased by their Care and Wealth, and their Dedication to the Cause of the Betterment of Humanitie cannot be doubted. This, of course, provided that, by Humanitie, you mean those Persons whose carnal Desires fit neatly into the Box provided by the Moralitie of my era, and none of your own.

I write, however, not for World-Vision – I am, past my own Historie, indifferent to the Rise or Fall of one…