Bowls from the Dogwood
The dogwood tree (Cornus florida) is a beloved feature of the woods and yards of the southern Appalachians. The four white, or sometimes pink, petals of its flower are tinged …
Music and Dance in our Mountains
The New York Times columnist David Brooks (whom we affectionately call Rabbi Brooks) has written recently about the virtues of small towns and local governments. Our town of Waynesville is …
The Arts of Peace: Some Working Thoughts
My wife Sylvia and I are co-chairing the tenth, indeed capstone, Lake Junaluska Interfaith Peace Conference, which will be held on November 21-24, 2019. The Conference will lift up and …
Holy Darkness
As we move to the end of the season of Lent and into the Holy Week between Palm Sunday and Easter, I want to share with you two panels that …
The Dramas of Life
I recently flew over the snow-covered Midwest to Moorhead, Minnesota, across the Red River from Fargo, North Dakota, to celebrate my daughter Elaine’s birthday. (Yes, she is a Valentine!) My …
Dance with Me
Each summer the mountains here resound with music and dancing. In case this sounds familiar, I’ve written about this before. Folkmoot dancers from around the world come to our little …
A New Processional Cross
I was recently asked to make a new cross for the Sanctuary at our church. I was told it should be able to stand as a focal point in worship …
Crystal Bridges
A stunning museum of American art in the Ozarks of northwestern Arkansas? Well, get used to it. We tried to visit the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in 2014 …
Petroglyphs at Three Rivers
Images of lizards birds sheep stuck full of arrows suns and faces …
Art and Craft at Warm Springs and Timberline Lodge
My final report on our Oregon trip begins with the Museum at Warm Springs, on the eastern flank of the Cascades north of Bend. The Warm Springs Reservation is home …
The Oregon Bach Festival
In days of violent acts and words, we all need times to center ourselves again in beauty that orders a world, in memories that give it meaning, and grandeur that …
Spirals and Labyrinths at Easter
This year our Easter experience emerged as an exploration of the spiral that is often seen to be at the source of all life, whether in the galaxies of space …
My Life with Words, Images, and Acts
Words, images, acts. They constitute the three-legged stool of my life. This is a matter of not only where I sit but of how I express myself in the world, …
How do you know?
“What do you know?” Who hasn’t uttered this frequent throw-away line in our everyday discourse. Not so usual would be to say “How do you know?” And yet, this could …
Sawdust and Soul
Over the past fifteen years I have carried on a lively conversation about woodworking with my good friend John de Gruchy—he in South Africa’s Western Cape, I in the mountains …
Faith and Poetry
Poetry arises where language meets mystery. With that beginning, my poet-friend Michael Beadle and I presented two evenings at our Methodist church on “Faith and Poetry.” In doing so, we …