Faith in Vermont: Journeys in Pediatric Dentistry
Like most people, I do not love change. This is particularly true if the change in question involves putting up buildings where there were none. I realize the need for economic development: More buildings generally mean more jobs, and that more...
Faith in Vermont: No Child of Ours
Last week -- the week when Alton Sterling was fatally shot by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile was fatally shot by police in Falcon Heights, Minnesota -- I had my monthly book club meeting.
The two events may seem...
Faith in Vermont: Mosquitoes: The War on Summer
“Why did I have to be born so tasty?!?” my daughter wailed, raking her fingernails across her shins. “I hate summer!”
In our neck of the woods, summer – which should be a season of backyard barbeques, kiddie...
Faith in Vermont: The Summer of Patience
The summer of 2016 may hereafter be referred to by our family as: “The Summer of Patience.”
Ah, patience! Defined as, “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset,”...
Poem by Gary Margolis: Haircut
Haircut
I don’t know what possesses me
to ask the order of your family
love. Children, dog, your loving
husband? Save that picture
in its frame that says I love my dog.
His perked-up ears. His over-biting
jaw....
Faith in Vermont: Marching on Memorial Day
“Can we march in the Memorial Day parade again this year?”
Out of nowhere, one of my daughters popped this question during breakfast on a morning in mid-April. Memorial Day was over a month away. We were all the way across the...
Faith in Vermont, California Sabbatical: Some Lessons of Sabbatical
I was not exactly looking forward to our family’s sabbatical in Berkeley, California. Our five-month sojourn was a year-and-a-half in the planning, so my mind had plenty of time to run through every nightmarish scenario imaginable....
Poem: On the lift
On the Lift
There’s not a better place
on earth than sitting here
with Bill McKibben
in County Tire’s waiting room.
Our cars hoisted on two
lifts. Two men behind
the glass, swapping out
our sets of...
Faith in Vermont, California Sabbatical: Goodbye to Berkeley
As we prepare to leave Berkeley, California and return home to Vermont, here are some Berkeley stories from the past five months of our family’s sabbatical:
It’s late January. We are a few weeks into our homeschool...
Poem: It's winter again
It’s Winter Again
Gratitude to you, young woman,
sliding your squeegee across the glass,
wiping its blade dry again.
Praise for the care you’re taking
applying yourself side to side.
Inside the circle, the track...