Invite Me to Speak - The Simple Art of Raising Children in your Spare Time

It's not hard to find experts who will teach us how to manage our children. But that both exhausts and bores me; I don't want a system. I don't want to maximize my kids' potential - whatever that might mean.

Kids are not adventure equipment, or status symbols, or raw material to channel through the factory of my ego-whims.

I am not here to tell you how to get your kid to eat her lunch, go to bed on time, or to devise a homework schedule. I used many child rearing techniques in my 20 years of parenting, but almost every "system" eventually fell away.

What I want to understand is how we should LIVE. How can we live our lives so that our choices, struggles, joys and battles can help to foster the lives of our children and ourselves?

Do we know what we want when we “raise our kids”? Do we know what our goals and hopes are? Are we as clear as possible on what our mission is?

I can speak to the theoretical and then to the nitty-gritty of raising good kids who, we hope and pray, can take care of themselves and this world as they grow up.

A Path of Integrity - Sermon

I recently preached on the topic of Integrity. I had this sermon completed before Christmas because I wanted to not stress about it. Good for me.

The day after Christmas I realized it wasn't "right." I wasn't sure what was wrong, but as I do when I'm looking for more than I have, I delved into quotes by people I think know what I'm trying to figure out. James Baldwin amazed me.

Then I watched the movies I reference in the sermon.

Then I wrote the sermon that is here.

Sermon - Servants of the Quest

The park ranger described the paths one could choose to hike across the island. I picked the that one he said was the easiest. When he was done talking, I walked to get a drink at a building that was a distance away, behind some trees. When I came back out, I couldn’t quite see what was a path and what was the field, so I walked back to where some people seemed to be hanging out. However, they were photographers and they weren’t going anywhere.

And that is how I got myself separated from all other humans who were going to be hiking across Bonaventure Island that day.

Where & What is Beauty?

This was this last Sunday’s service in the United Unitarian Universalist congregation in my town. This was entirely written by five of us - the “United We Writers.” I told friends that I would post this on my website. The service was wonderfully received.

"No Felons Here"

This is the sanctuary of the church where Len and I married - Grace United Methodist Church in Chicago. A blessed place.

I preached this sermon at United Unitarian Universalist /23/2019.

The photo is of the sanctuary of Grace United Methodist in Chicago. It's the church in which Len and I met and then married. We happened to be driving by earlier this year on a Sunday morning. They were voting that day on what to do with their building. I took this single picture with my phone, capturing the affection we all feel for our friends and fellow-journeyers in our congregations.

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Journey to Happiness

(I preached this sermon at my church, United Unitarian Universalist, in Waukesha. 3/3/2019)

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One day a young Buddhist on her journey to find True Happiness, came to the banks of a wide river. Staring at the great obstacle in front of her, she pondered and pondered how to cross such a wide and mighty barrier.

Just as she was about to give up, she saw a Great Teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yelled over to the Teacher, "Oh Wise One, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river?”

Sermon - Courage / Roses on the Columbia

While on the space shuttle Columbia, which would explode during reentry a few days later, astronaut Laurel Clark wrote some emails to family and friends.

This is from one of them: Subject: Hello from 150 NM above the Earth

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