Earlier this month, my children lost their first grandparent. They have been truly blessed to have all four grandparents in their lives into their mid- to late-twenties. Grandma Carol had a long battle with illness which interfered with her being an active Grandma for her six grandchildren in the last few years. But, oh what a grandma she was. Those six kids adored Grandma, and she showered them with love, especially at Christmas.

I'm just sad this morning. I knew I should not have looked at any news today. But here we are. Here's a headline from NPR News. "3 massive changes you'll see as the climate careens toward tipping points." The US decided to sit out the COP30 United Nations climate meeting in Brazil. The goal has been to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees to avoid significant disruption to our climate and weather patterns.

John Gorka released a new album today. John is a man and a musician I greatly admire. He oozes kindness. Indulge me and take a moment to listen to this song from his new album. Isn't that lovely? I try and never stop believing there is goodness in this world even though every morning I listen to the news appalled at how we are willingly taking one step deeper into authoritarianism, not closer to it, in it.

I'm in a songwriting group on Facebook, the singer/songwriter songwriting challenge. This group and staying up-to-date with other musicians is my primary reason for keeping Facebook. For me this is one good thing that comes out of Facebook. In the face of despair and difficult times it's important to create things, to do creative things. This is how humans bring love into the world.

Choosing anger and eventually landing in a state of hatred seems to be an easy choice. Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation today begins with "...the energy with which we do things matters. To be in love is to stand in a different space. Love is not what we do; it's how we do it." I have said this to my teacher education students for years.

Greg Brown has a song titled Late Night Radio about remembering being a kid in the “way back” of a station wagon in a little nest built by mom and dad as they travel cross country in the dark of the night. It’s nostalgia for a simpler time when it was just the family floating along in a dark car across the plains of Kansas picking up AM radio stations from as far away as Texas.

Here I am about to step backwards off a 100' cliff. Trust the ropes I'm telling myself. There's other adjectives being muttered here. But I ask you, is this not the appropriate face of concern for a guy stepping backwards off of a 200' cliff? "You want me to go first?" Tracy asked. "Woman, please." Is what I said in my head.

Edward Kimmel CC 2.0 For the past few months I’ve been awash in anger, sadness, bewilderment, and been disheartened. Anger rises to the top obscuring the others, and then the ability to find and see beauty, hope and joy. That’s not a good thing. This stems from watching (from my perspective) things we as a society have built and hold dear dismantled—things that when dismantled cause harm to individuals, and I say without hyperbole, hasten ecological collapse that none of us will escape.

Here's a video blog for this week, remembering John Lewis' death on July 17, 2020.

In January 2024 I began another "songwriting season." I'm part of a group (Singer/Songwriter Songwriting Challenge) in which we are given a prompt a week (or every other week) for two different sessions (winter and summer). You could join this group and write songs too! Or, maybe just follow and hear some great songwriters witness songs being born. …

I recently wrote this fable and song. Things seem rough right now, no? Will we be okay? I don't know. This story and song are leaning into that uncertainty, trying to acknowledge it and also at the same time find some beauty, hope, strength. Seems maybe at times all we can do, right? Anyway, here's a video of me telling the story and singing the song.

I finished reading James by Percival Everett this morning. It is a powerful book deserving of the accolades. I recommend it. It is the telling of Huck Finn from Jim's first-person narrative. It's been a long time since I read Huck Finn, so I can't speak to how it follows the events of that book, and I don't think that is important.

From AP March 31. The Trump administration said Monday that it has deported 17 more “violent criminals” from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs to El Salvador, as it doubles down on a policy of removing people from the U.S. to countries other than their own despite criticism over lack of transparency and human rights issues. Good thing you might be thinking.

This morning’s walk was punctuated by crunching snow and slips and skids over icy patches. We had a whopper of a spring storm this week. Twelve inches of wet cement. Then, the temperature rose to 40 and dropped overnight leaving crusted snow and refrozen puddles on sidewalks. It’s early spring, which also brings male northern cardinals singing their song. They sing for one reason.

This week, a student posted this question in a discussion this for their peers to consider and answer: Since we are talking about engagement, what do you do when you don't feel engaged? Great question (that also demonstrates nice engagement in the class) that got me thinking about this for myself. What do I do? Sometimes I push on through and get the task done as that's just necessary and a part of life.

I'm stealing this title from the daily meditation in my email from Richard Rohr, a Catholic Priest who sends these out as part of his work at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Today he is writing about the Christmas story and the meaning of Jesus being born to a person living under oppression. I recommend reading his short piece/meditation on this no matter your religious/spiritual inclination (link at the end of this post).