This is a quote and a text from Sophy in May, when I had not heard from her for a while and was concerned… “I have a new story for you: when in DC a few weeks ago I woke up with what I thought was a heart...
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It all started with my adult daughter’s comment that if my husband and I should leave this world at the same time, then she didn’t have a clue as to where we banked, who our doctors were or where important papers might be hiding. Since my daughter lived in...
Actor Dean Winters… You may not recognize his name but you most likely would recognize his face—he’s the “Mayhem” guy in Allstate Insurance’s TV commercials. He’s the one person we do not want to encounter!!! Beneath the surface of those Allstate commercials is a man who has endured his...
It is no wonder that we are all just a little bit on the wonky side of “keep on, keepin’ on” which is an expression sweet Miss Lillian used to say about being 100. In other words, it was totally beyond her understanding as to why she was still...
I was talking with a friend the other day, who had inadvertently hurt me. (Hurts are usually inadvertent: Who would choose a friend who would deliberately hurt you?) He said, “I don’t take responsibility for hurting you. If your hurt button got pushed, it has nothing to do with...
For a whole year and a half, I have tried to attract birds to my garden. I put up a birdbath, and grieved when no bird came to drink. I put up a bird feeder, and watched the squirrels hang upside down, feeding at leisure on what had promised...
I don’t know where it came from or how old it is; it has just “always been.”. “It” is a wooden wash stick that belonged to my mother and now belongs to me. You can tell from the photo how old and worn it is, As far back as...
Easter. Rebirth. Resurrection. Spring. It is also the time when we celebrate the Resurrection. Or, if you’re like me, puzzle over it, filled with questions and doubt: did Jesus resurrect bodily, or was it a mystical return from the dead? Had he fully died? Maybe he went into a...
Every month, as I sit down to write my blog, I think, “This will be my last post. It’s time to stop. Too many people are creating, publishing, screaming for recognition, for me to add one more word.” (As if anyone is actually reading my posts, itself perhaps an...
For many years (40? 50?) no holiday celebration in our family has been complete without the family favorite: Polish Baked Mushrooms. (see below) Not only is it rich with eggs and heavy cream and butter (and everything’s good with butter and cream), but filled with protein and fat. You’d...
Today I saw a fox pattering along the edge of the forest, nose down, intent on its journey to catch mice in the horse pasture a quarter mile up the road. The birds are twittering, a single crow cawing, and, high above, a vulture sways on the wind looking...
Sixteen years ago I prayed to God to bring me a Relationship, the companion of my heart. I was lonely. I wanted a man to share my life. I thought a man would heal the ache in my soul. Instead I got a horse. A horse? I...
This is a story of how lovingly our needs are met. It’s also about an angel, but mostly about how Spirit, the Guiding Principle, the Universe, God, whatever you choose to call this incomprehensible Mystery, works invisibly to heal our pain. The solutions are not what we’d impose if...
Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt. St....
Dear Janine, If there is one benefit to this coronavirus isolation, it’s giving us the luxury of time. It’s not boring. To quote Cicero, “ If you have a garden and a library, you have everything.” But when, like me, you live alone, the hours are long, especially on...
In December 1982, a Mel Gibson film entitled “The Year of Living Dangerously “was released. We are only a few months into a new year but I have already dubbed 2020 with the same title as The Year of Living Differently. For me, the difference began 17 days into...
Dear Janine, The coronavirus seems to be the only topic of conversation these days, assuming you can even find someone to have a conversation with . . . as we stand separated by our fears. I write this sitting on the front steps of my little cottage in Massachusetts,...
The accompanying photo is from a correspondent, Pam Urquidi-Wilson, who sees angels in the clouds. On crutches, with painful spinal issues, she lives with a generous, boundless faith in the Holy Spirit, seeing angels everywhere. It’s been a long time since I told a story of angels coming...
A few weeks ago I “pulled a muscle.” You’d think at my age that I would know better than to break up the packed ice on the sidewalk outside my house, and heave the snow over my shoulder to the verge; but it was such a pretty, blue-sky...
Here we are in January. The new year. This time the new Decade. January is the month when we make Resolutions—and usually forget them in a week. Instead of resolutions, I offer myself one word, an Intention, that I can muse on and meander beside throughout the year. One...
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT What is your favorite Christmas song (hymn or carol)? I’ll admit that I’m hard pressed to pick only one but would have to...
Christmas is a time of giving. What we don’t always remember is that it’s also a time of receiving, and that receiving is itself a gift. It’s hard to receive. I think it’s sometimes as hard to receive as it is to ask for help. Some people naturally know...
Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday. For one thing, it’s become so commercial, with its orange plastic turkeys and pumpkins, not to mention the tinsel of Christmas that started way back at Hallowe’en, that you can hardly remember to offer thanks. It’s ugly. I want beauty, kindness, thoughtful stillness,...
“Just be yourself. Everyone else is taken!” Oscar Wilde In this day and age where we all have to “become someone” in order to be seen or noticed, I have come to love this quote! Just be me, myself, and I. Yet while this seems simple enough I realize...
“…lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white unto harvest…” John 4:35 KJV I’m not a big fan of Halloween. In fact, the only things I like about the Hallowed Eve is the movie Hocus Pocus and hearing 2 songs on the radio: Monster Mash and...
“Writing is a form of therapy: sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in a human situation.” Graham Greene October, and again we have the pleasure of frightening ourselves...
“Look, the trees are turning,” she said, glancing out the picture window toward the New Hampshire woods, and everything in me wanted to cry out: Not yet! Too soon! September marks the beginning of the new year. The children are back at school, anxious or excited, happy with their...
My faith journey began on Great Grandmother’s farm in the Hemet Valley of southern California. The Valley lay at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains which seemed a three or four minute walk to the left down Meridian Street which fronted the property but in truth lay some...
By Sophy Burnham ——–While working in the garden, I began to muse on how humans are the only animals (at least that we know of) who can live in both past and future. True an earthworm has a one-second precognitive response before it’s cut in two , and to...
“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.” Acts 2:2 NKJ I must confess that I have not always fully given the Holy Spirit the credit and respect I now feel it deserves. ...
Summertime, and the living is easy. Our cultural memories are rich with summertime: the slap of a screen door to the excited calls of children; of dozing in a hammock over a good book or casting a fishing line onto the black river; of days on the beach, ice...
I normally write my own posts each month on FaithShapes, but this month I’m turning my space over to author Holley Gerth. I ran across her post recently on DaySpring’s website, and I think it is so appropriate for May and graduates. And if you aren’t a graduate, then...
There is a saying in the 12-step Alcoholic Anonymous program that “You will not regret the past, nor wish to close the door on it.” And mostly this is true, except when I find myself awake in the darkest hours of a morning night defenseless against the Inner Judge...
If you get lost in life, put your ear to the ground and listen to its pounding heart. Old Sami saying As I write this one cold and windy March, I find myself longing for April springtime, with the flowers blooming yellow, pink, and blue against green...
Maundy Thursday: The word “Maundy” comes to us as an Anglo-French word derived from the Latin “mandatum,” which means “commandment.” It refers to when Jesus, in the Upper Room during the Last Supper, said to the disciples: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; even...
I can recall hearing my grandmother say that sometimes before a social event or having guests in her home, her stomach would be “all tied up in knots.” Some folks call it having “butterflies” — that anxious feeling that causes our stomachs to feel a tad uneasy. Even singer...
The month of March is said to come in like a lion and out like a lamb, and as I write this, longing for lambs and warmth, the temperature with wind-chill here in the mid-Atlantic hovers in the low double digits, expecting yet more snow and the same dreary,...
1 onion, chopped 1 T. butter 3 (14 oz. cans) chicken broth 1 (32 oz.) frozen hash browns (diced, not shredded) 1 (10 oz. can) Cream of Celery soup 1 (10 oz. can) Cream of Chicken soup 1 1/2 cups milk 1 lb. Velveeta cheese Bacon bits (optional)...
A couple of nights ago I had this interesting dream of a couple of hanging pots with beautiful clover (or Shamrocks) trailing over the edge of each pot. The stems of each clover were connected to each other, with several of them being being next to each other. This...
“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” George Washington. The painting accompanying this article hangs in my church during the winter months and was...
In dark December, when everyone was talking about harking to angels, and the birth of the Baby and the return of the Light, the Atlantic Monthly published a story about demonic possession. (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arcive/2018/23/catholic-exorcisms-on-the-rise/573943.) An acquaintance made sure I saw it: “I know you write about angels,” he wrote. “What...
We are already well into a new year; in fact, I’m posting this on January 25th, and that means 11 months from today is Christmas. Time certainly does fly. I am not one to make New Year’s Resolutions. I tried that for many years and only got frustrated when...
Not long ago a Canadian wrote me about a mysterious encounter he’d had with a homeless man, Helmut, who always carried in his shopping bags spiritual books, herbs, treats and notebooks, and you could imagine that many people thought this ragged man was probably a little crazy. But Helmut...
Ingredients: 1 Cup of sugar 1/4 Cup flour 1/8 tsp. nutmeg 1/2 Cup butter (1 stick) 1 recipe for plain pastry or 2 Pillsbury Pie Crusts (1 pkg.) 4 large fresh peeled peaches (when in season) 1/4 Cup water Mix sugar, flour, nutmeg. Cut in butter until “crumbly”. Sprinkle...
Winter comes with gloomy, cold, rainy, snowy days. A fireplace for centuries was used to provide heat and cook food to castles, cabins, and homes. A place to gather for warmth, family time, peace, and security. In the 21st century a fireplace seems to be more for visual enjoyment....
Our precious cat, Miss Ellie, passed last week just 3 months shy of her 20th birthday…yes, I said “20th”!!! I truly believe that cats do have nine lives—maybe more! As a very young kitten, my son rolled a back tire of his truck over her resulting in a dislocated...