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Growing up, I took piano lessons for the better part of seven years or so. And yet, if you sat me in front of piano today, about the only melody I might be able to produce would be one half of the Heart & Soul duet. Or maybe, if I had enough time…
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On my car radio on Monday afternoon, I heard a rabbi from Pittsburgh interviewed. Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel is the director of a humanitarian agency, the Aleph Institute. He lives and works in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, the site of the latest act…
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On a United flight to Denver last year, I ordered my customary cranapple juice to sip while reading a book. The napkin beneath my drink struck me as worth saving. So I did. It reads: “Planes change. Values don’t. Your priorities will always be ours.”…
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What can I do? I ask myself this question every time I learn about a different need in the world, or hear another great speaker bring an issue to light. At first I get fired up with great momentum, knowing I want to help fix the problem and bring abo…
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Science has a way of making a person feel small. For instance: We know that the ocean covers 70 percent of the earth’s surface, but it is so deep and dark that humans have only explored e a small fraction of it. There could be hundreds of species of…
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It’s been an intense week in the news. Cosby’s incarceration, the Kavanaugh/Ford hearings, and like other times these abuses have surfaced, floods of similar stories get told and re-told in solidarity and for the sake of collective healing. I’ve foun…
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A few weeks ago, I hopped in my car at the end of a full day, turned out of the church parking lot, and headed north on Brady Street to make my way home. Most days, I’m in no particular hurry. I’ve always enjoyed those few evening moments in the car…
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I heard a pastor once boasting that the congregation he served had the world’s most uncomfortable pews. I’d never sat on the wooden benches in that sanctuary, but supposedly they were not just cushionless and hard. They were squeezed close together s…
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I happen to enjoy feeling secure. The last thing I do before falling into bed every night is check that the door on our attached garage is closed. Doors with locks are a great invention. So are seatbelts and computer passwords and childproof caps and…
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One of my fondest childhood memories with my Nana is going to Hardee’s for apple cinnamon raisin biscuits every Wednesday morning. After we finished our breakfast, seated at the high top table by the window, we would drive across the parking lot to t…
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Last weekend St. Paul made room in its gathering spaces for an annual garden share. All shapes, sizes, and colors of food were carried in from the church’s community garden. Box-loads were brought in from personal gardens, too. Even if fresh fruits a…
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A little less than a month ago, a pregnant, endangered whale captured international attention. The mother orca is part of a pod being observed by the Center for Whale Research near San Juan Island, just northwest of Seattle. The organization works to…