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The return of Vacation Bible School at St. Paul this week takes me back two years to my first one here. I was only three weeks into my position and hardly knew anyone. Frankly, the hundreds of people – small and large – who swarmed through the variou…
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This week I found myself in a variety of conversations about health with different St. Paul people. In these conversations, I realized something about the way my own approach to healthy living has changed. When I was a kid, I would go to the d…
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We have one place in our house where we let our kids write on the walls. Every 6 months or so, we grab a Sharpie (yes, a permanent marker!) and head to the door to our pantry. There, on the door frame, we write little lines getting increasingly furth…
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High school graduation parties in our community are a big deal. Garage interiors get a spiffy new coat of white paint. Band mementos, sports ribbons, and grade school photos go public for a few hours before landing back in the keepsake box down in th…
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In a 2015 Ted Talk, radio host Celeste Headlee suggests ten ways to have a better conversation. One stuck out to me, and I’ve been working on it over the last several months since hearing her suggestions: don’t ask yes or no questions. Instead, try t…
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NASA has a fascinating mission underway. Ten days ago, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft pushed itself away from the asteroid Bennu to begin a 2.4-billion-mile trip back to Earth. OSIRIS-REx, which is about the size of two large commercial refrigerators, has…
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Months ago, my brother and I were talking about the things we were most excited to do on the other side of this pandemic. I remember talking about travels to exotic places and dreaming of long elaborate meals at a crowded table of friends. I imagined…
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In 1965, Brian Robson was a 19-year-old from the U.K. who flew to Melbourne, Australia, on an assisted immigration program to work for Victorian Railways. He got desperately homesick after a few weeks and wanted out. To quit his job, he would’ve had…
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St. Paul 7th and 8th graders, together with their (amazing!) sponsors, wrapped up the 2020-2021 Confirmation year last evening. Not surprisingly for this year, the clouds gathering menacingly overhead as the afternoon wore on made for some touch-and-…
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I heard a story last week about a preschooler named George who would play a game he called Poison Meat Eater. To play, he would bare his teeth, put his hands up like claws, and make his way towards other kids in the classroom, looking like he was goi…
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Early in the pandemic, a musical theater duo known as The Bengsons recorded a simple song at their dining room table. In the “Keep Going on Song” they sing of losing their work as performers and moving in with their parents, but still, somehow, remem…
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After returning from a weeklong vacation several years ago, my wife and I were unloading the car inside our attached garage. After carrying in an assortment of luggage, Susan thought she spotted a rodent out of the corner of her eye. By her reckoning…