I feel another one of my manic reading periods coming on. I started reading the book As Is: Unearthing Commonplace Glory =by Krista Finch tonight.  I read about the first 50 pages and had to put it down.  Not because it was troubling or difficult to read or anything of the sort, but instead I [...]

There are several authors that I have struggled to connect with over the years.  Barbara Brown Taylor is one of them – until her most recent book, An Altar in the World, I had never actually finished one of her books.  Its nothing against her writing personally, but it just never seemed to connect with [...]

Just returned home from Connecticut and attending the funeral of my dear Aunt Helen (aka known in my family as Ciocia Helen).  It was one of those bittersweet weekends – always difficult to gather with family and friends for a time such as this, but mixed with the celebration of a beautiful woman’s life and [...]

I finished this amazing book about two weeks ago, but its been percolating a while to post my thoughts on this profoundly moving book.  This is not a review of a book per se as when I think of a review, I think of it in the manner of saying whether one should or should [...]

I am in one of my book manic modes.  I go in cycles of reading.  Some times I read a ton, some times I feel like it has been a year since I opened one.  Well, I am in one of those where I can’t get enough of the printed word.  I just finished a [...]

I think that the subtitle for this book does a great disservice to the content of the book itself.  I received Thy Kingdom Connected and honestly thought, great, here’s another one of those ‘how to’ type books for church leaders where the author simply walks people through what facebook is, how the internet works, how [...]

I recently finished Through the River: Understanding Your Assumptions About Truth by Jon & Mindy Hurst (with Dr. Paul Hiebert).  As the authors themselves note, this is not a hard-core (my words) book about the philosophies of truth, but instead trying to serve as a gateway to help people explore some of the ideas of [...]

I often am asked what books I would recommend to help in one’s faith journey.  I’ve been thinking a good bit about this the last few weeks and have come up with an initial list.  Feel free to add books you might recommend as well. These books represent some different periods in my journey, so [...]

Well, I have finally finished my first Barbara Brown Taylor book.  I have started many of her books before, but until this one, I had never finished.  Not sure why, but it is just how it happened.  Rev. Taylor is a wonderful writer with some wonderful spiritual insights, but I had just not connected well [...]

Growing up, I cannot count the number of times that I rode my bike or walked by myself or with friends down to these three places: A drainage ditch about 10 houses down from my own (right in the middle of the picture between the 2 houses): A duckpond a bit further down: And then [...]