The Boston Bomber & Mother Bears
Whatever was Djhokhar Tsarnaev thinking-- accused of setting off homemade bombs on April 15? It’s baffling. Here is a teenager, deeply wounded, isolated from all he knew, and now in police lock-down. I did meet him a few times when he was 16 at the Cambridge high...
Our Beloved Boston Marathon
Not the Boston marathon. OMG. Not 2 explosions during the marathon. This is worse than a Hitchcock nightmare. Oh Holy God. 4 people dead and countless injured. Here, in my cheerful cocky energetic hometown. And the Marathon, started in 1897 with 18 runners, is...
Poems Arch Across a Wet Sky
The Walk Each step a word Each toe a pupil Each pilgrim a sapling Big toes flex, then probe, and grab Groping over earthflesh. Callouses reach blindly for a vista of mountains. Underfoot The arch tenderly curves around a root Prayer is never stagnant Grace...
Guancascos in Honduras
In Honduras I pick up bits of the culture. I eat an empanada, and the memory is stored on my tongue. I see a boy riding bareback downhill to the bridge, and my calf muscles contract as if trotting along. I'm amazed at the bromeliads growing like spikey lily pads, the...
El Cristo Negro de Eschipulas
The terrain going southeast from Chiquimula is a mix of chaparral with valleys of cultivated fields. Guatemalans here dress in western style, with a Butch Cassidy swing. The harvest is good here with melons, watermelons, fruit trees, honey, and ofcourse lots of maize....
AVP cradled by the Ipala Volcano
The workshop of AVP glided into the lives of Magdalena, Marco and Eunice like a stream of clear water in the dessert. I want to share here with you the thrill of an AVP (Alternatives to Violence) workshop, held at a Quaker school, with 16 Guatemalans and one Bostonian...
Psalms for a New Palestine
I. The pool of Bethesda is dry; Apartment buildings tower above the gap in the Old City; Mourning doves eat refuse on the Tower of David. Pilgrims, stop your wandering. Scholars, stop your scrutiny. Children, stop your spinning wheels. Underneath the walls of Herod a...
Navigating, WWII & My Dad
My father risked his life several times as a pilot in WW II. I think of him often now that he has left me, left this earth. My father traveled to see the marvels of the world, and loved returning to his home town where he lived for 85 years. My father loved wild...
Home, Health, Heart
We have arrived after such a long trip, exhausting security at airports. A huge thank you to all those who read, wrote and held us in prayer for our 14 days in Israel/Palestine. With so much war and UN drama, all prayers were needed. Your love buoyed our trip in...
Ramallah: Friends presence for over 140 Years
On Sunday Jonathan and I had a long rest and got up to worship at the Ramallah Friends meetinghouse. The Ramallah Meeting is small, with thick stone walls and arched windows.I soaked my dusty soul in the coolness and quiet. It was built in 1940 exactly between two...