The Sunset Juggler (formerly The Dragon's Mouth)

This is the poem that made me look up John Hall Wheelock’s work (though I had only seen the section after the Break at that point):

Shall not a man sing as the night comes on? (more…)

Just a heads up.  I’m planning in the near future to change the name of this blog.  I had originally thought I might call it The Sunset Juggler.  I have the photo (no, I’m the photographer, not the juggler) to go with the name.  And my sense of life in general, and life with God and scripture in particular, is that we are always juggling and wrestling to find our way.  And, this is more true for me since maybe April of this year, in the aftermath of my gastric bypass surgery, as I see the probability of retirement of some kind approaching (more quickly, I suspect, than I had anticipated), I also see myself as being (at least at the start of) the sunset of my years. (more…)

Well, I haven’t been saying much of late.  That’s partly because I’ve made the switch – I bought an Apple desktop (iMac) for my home computer (as my old home PC slowly dies).  And a fair amount of time and energy is being spent on learning to use the Apple, and in slowly figuring out how to transfer some programs (and many files) from the PC to the Apple.  (I’m trying not to simply move what’s on the PC to the Apple.  That’s what I’ve always ended up doing in the past.  And it’s accumulated a lot of junk over the decades.  I want the junk gone!)

I’m also doing a lot more reading of a spiritual nature.  Sometimes it’s sections or chapters of books.  But mostly, I have four books about the saints, and their writings, and the writings of the early church for when I say Matins (Morning Prayer) at the church office, and I have another four books on the saints and selections from spiritual writings for when I say the offices at home.  (No, I don’t use them all every day.  But I’m actively using all of them.) (more…)

Today is my brother Fred’s birthday.

It is also the feast day for St. Helena (the Emperor Constantine’s mother, and the most prominent active Christian of her day), who is the patron of the Order of St. Helena – who’s breviary I am using.  I’m exploring the possibility of Associate status with them.  So it’s a first class feast for me these days.

Helena is not in the calendar of the Episcopal Church.  William Porcher DuBose is remembered today on that calendar.  I found myself quite taken with what I read about him.

In “Brightest and Best” Sam Portaro writes that DuBose, who was born in 1836, was “one of those persons born seemingly ahead of his time …  At the heart of his faith DuBose held a tenacious and fundamental belief in the Incarnation, the premise that in Jesus Christ God places before us not just the image of what it means to be human, but the very person who fulfills God’s intention for humankind.  Dubose would have had little patience for our spirtualizations of Jesus that make him an oddity, the exception rather than the rule of what we are to be.” (more…)

We have been blessed to have a week in a timeshare (The Sandpiper) in Lincoln City, Oregon these past three years. For me this is really an annual slice of heaven. I’m going to miss it next year. Anne’s school starts too early (or our week runs too late). It’s a nice place, by my standards. A bit shabby, but comfortable. We’re on a bluff above the beach, overlooking the ocean. With the sliding glass door on the balcony open (as it is now, and most of the time we’re home) I can hear the waves breaking and there is a gentle ocean breeze. I don’t think I can tell you how nice this is.

I think I could have a wonderful vacation of we never got out of the house! (more…)

Ok. Nobody asked me. But I almost cannot help myself.

When I worship at a church, I always seem to critique the service in my head.

This morning, Anne and I worshiped at St. James’ in Lincoln City (Oregon). We’ve been there before (and liked it). But this year they have an interim. So it was a somewhat different experience. (more…)