Category Archives: Education

Eating My Words

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Conversations with my chef friend, Penny Cameron

1996, West Windsor, New Jersey

Me: How can it cost $5 for a loaf of decent bread?

Penny: Make your own in a bread machine. It’s easy.

Me: Not likely.

2000, New Hope, PA

Me: Genuardi’s is out of the good chicken stock again.

Penny: Make your own. It’s easy.

Me: When pigs fly.

2001, September, New Hope, PA

Me: Sugar free applesauce is almost impossible to find.

Penny: It’s easy to make on the stove and freeze in ice cube trays. Even better, can it – apples are cheap right now.

Me: I don’t I have an inner farmer to channel.

Since those conversations, I’ve done everything Penny suggested. I’ve made my own chicken stock for almost 20 years. I’ve canned applesauce and more for almost a decade. I’ve channeled an inner farmer enough to become a teaching gardener, showing preschool children how to grow and enjoy herbs and vegetables.

Penny died just a few months after my applesauce complaint – liver failure. Whenever I take a chance and try to grow or cook something new, I feel her spirit surround me. What a beautiful way for the Spirit to show me how to eat with intention and thanks.

Study Materials

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I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity, and self-seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust, and a childlike faith in God.

In particular I will try to be faithful in those habits of prayer, work, study, physical exercise, eating, and sleep, which I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me to be right.

And as I cannot in my own strength do this, nor even with a hope of success attempt it, I look to thee, O Lord God my Father, in Jesus my Savior, and ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

A Morning Resolve, Forward Day by Day, inside front cover; Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement. www.ForwardMovement.org.

I got to spend over an hour on the phone with my brother, Bill, last night. We got caught up on each other’s lives – work, family, weather, etc. As usual, we also talked about what we are reading for pleasure and for work. We both agreed that almost any field of inquiry, almost any subject, can be a doorway into a deeper and transcendent reality – it just depends on our approach.

It’s true when I dive into something by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. It’s just as true when I study origami directions.

It’s just not as obvious.

May I have the wisdom and faith to recognize in whatever I study a doorway into God’s love.

This is one in a series. For more, click “A Morning Resolve” above.

Cultivating Cheerfulness

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I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity, and self-seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence… [A Morning Resolve]

A good person, but not someone you’d want to go out for a beer with.

That’s most of the people I knew during my doctoral years at Princeton Seminary – faculty, administration, and students. There were notable exceptions, maybe 20% of the total population altogether. It isn’t as if the other 80% weren’t interesting, sincere, intelligent, or well-meaning: they were. It’s just that they weren’t particularly fun to be around outside a classroom. They were serious people with serious things to ponder and accomplish, and they had little time or patience for shared laughter and fun. Did I come across the same way?

As there were no classes on cultivating cheerfulness, and very few professors capable of teaching such a class if there had been, maybe a different kind of mentor was needed- someone who was comfortable enough in the non-academic world to help those who weren’t. It’s not just learning the social skills to talk with a wide range of people: it’s seeing in a stranger something of value, even before beginning a conversation. It’s knowing that there’s a whole wide world of fascinating people and ideas to explore, and being grateful for the opportunity to do so with whomever happens to be there at the time.

To lighten someone’s day, and to get a kick out of the world in general – that’s a spiritual gift worth cultivating.

Sincere

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I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serene life…

[A Morning Resolve, Forward Day by Day, November 2019 – January 2020, inside cover]

Merriam Webster’s definition of Sincere

A. Free of dissimulation: Honest

B. Free from adulteration: Pure

C. Marked by genuineness: True

[www.merriam-webster.com]

I will be who I am, fully and completely. I won’t offer a false version of myself to others. I will be faithful to the world and those around me, as best I can. 

When others share their true selves with me, I’ll do my best to be worthy of their sacred gift.

[For the full prayer, click A Morning Resolve above.]

Blind spot spotted

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I like to cook, and I spend a lot of time trying new recipes from Bon Appetit, King Arthur Flour, and my favorite cookbooks. I can work around food allergies and preferences, usually with no more than a minor adjustment here and there. But a weekend guest shined a light on something I hadn’t seen before: I don’t know how to create a good vegan meal, and I don’t have the ingredients necessary to do so. Almost everything I make requires dairy products, eggs, or some form of animal product. Cookies, muffins, rolls – none vegan. Outside of a couple of soups, my basic baguette recipe, granola and hummus, I could offer no more than a cup of coffee, a few nuts and a pbj. Vegetarian I can do: vegan, I can’t.

My vegan guest wasn’t around for any meals except a quick bite of breakfast before heading up to Boston – granola, toast, and coffee covered those. Still, I’m grateful for the awareness of my inability to offer vegans the same hospitality I can offer non-vegans. I’ll enjoy finding a few more recipes, or learning about how to adapt the ones I already know and love. I’m also grateful for the awareness of my dependence on animal products – those that don’t require loss of life and those that do. It brings with it the chance to live life with greater intention and thanks.

 

Peaceful sleep…

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Angel Guardian, keep and preserve all of us from every evil, sickness, and grief.

Help us, O Lord, to be good, obedient, and kind.

I thank thee, O Lord, for all good things thou has sent to me during this past day.

Let me spend this night in peace, and protect me from all harm. Amen.

[A Manual of Eastern Orthodox Prayers, Crestwood, New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991, p. 16]

Let me spend this night in peace…

During one stay with my parents after my older son was born, my father sent me off to bed around ten o’clock with a promise that he’d put Colin in the crib when he was ready to sleep. He also told me not to worry if Colin woke early – he’d be up early anyway, and he’d be glad to keep Colin company while I got some extra sleep. Ten minutes later, I was asleep; nine hours later, I awoke to hear Colin and my father downstairs, laughing. A few years after that, he kept my younger son company, soothing Jared through an uncomfortable night of teething while I slept without interruption.

I spent those nights in peace because I knew my father and trusted in his love and care for me and my young sons. I didn’t wake up because I knew he was more than capable of meeting their needs. If an emergency arose, my father would do whatever was necessary, and would wake me if I needed to be up.

My children are twenty-one and eighteen now, and my father died almost four years ago. But each night, I still hand Colin and Jared over, just as I have since their first  nights in this world. I hand them over to God, trusting that God’s love for them will not fail. I do the same with everyone else’s lives, including my own. If I could not give everyone over to God, would I ever get a peaceful night’s sleep?

This past day

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At the end of the day, am I grateful for the hours I was given? Am I aware, on the superficial as well as on the deepest level, of the miracle I’ve been immersed in? The miracle I easily mistake for an infinite if commonplace resource: daily life.

Sometimes, I catch a glimpse of its outline or a hint of its face. The way the trees move in the wind, the way my cats interrupt their backyard explorations to rest under my hand, the aeronautic wonder of a sparrow flying from maple to forsythia, the appearance of my still sleepy son packing his duffel before heading to work.

Food on the table, breathable air, loving and being loved. Today may not be perfect, and I may forget some of its gifts. Still…

I thank thee, O Lord, for all good things thou hast sent to me during the past day. 

[nighttime prayer, A Manual of Eastern Orthodox Prayers, Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991, p. 16. This is part of an ongoing series. For the full prayer, click Prayer At Night above.]

Help Us, O Lord

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Help us, O Lord, to be good, obedient, and kind.

Good, obedient, and kind. Taken separately, they don’t have near the power as they do together.

Good    Help me spend my days wisely, offering my talents, knowledge, and energy only to those things that increase the love in this world. Everything I am can devastate or foster. Help me choose the latter.

Obedient      I am too limited to see very far down the path of love and peace. I am tempted to serve lesser powers: greed, vanity, and fear.  Help me choose to serve you, when your reasons seem clear and when they do not.

Kind      All the good intentions will lead me astray if I am willing to harm others in their name. Help me choose kindness over judgement, for you have been so kind to me.

On this day, help me to remember that without kindness I can mistake personal piety for goodness and unwillingness to accept the consequences of my actions for obedience. God help me.

[For the full prayer, click prayer at night above]

From every evil, sickness, and grief

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Keep and preserve all of us from every evil, sickness, and grief.

Sickness and grief come to all of us before we put many candles on our birthday cakes. The healthiest will catch colds, stomach bugs, or sprain ankles. Grief is inevitable for anyone who loves; it’s the natural response to loss. Perhaps that’s why they are included in this child’s prayer – an acknowledgement of the difficulties that come into every life.

What about evil? Is it an inevitable part of being human, just like sickness and grief? Judging by the lynchings, genocides, mass shootings, and the prevalence of physical abuse, the answer is yes. Evil can touch our lives at any point. Very young children may not understand evil, but I believe they are more than capable of recognizing and being damaged by it.

My first read on keep and preserve all of us from every evil is a prayer for protection from something external to me. My second read: keep and preserve all of us from becoming evil, from visiting evil upon others. The first reading is a child’s one, the second for those of us a few years past nursery school. I’m old enough to recognize my own capacity for evil, and to pray there will never come a time when that capacity is put to use.

Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil…

Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil…

Please, God, guard my soul from evil without and from evil within.

[For more in this series, click  prayer at night above]

 

Angel guardian…

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Angel Guardian, keep and preserve all of us from every evil, sickness, and grief.

I was in my early thirties before I read this prayer. I never prayed to an angel guardian when I was a child – it wasn’t common practice in Baptist and Congregational traditions back then. I never prayed to a saint, either; no prayers to Mary, Anthony, Jude, Francis, or any of the others. Back then, I prayed to God or Jesus. Or so I thought, until I recited one of my favorite prayers:

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep,

Angels guard me through the night, and wake me in the morning light. 

How could I have missed the angel in this prayer?

Except for the Lord’s Prayer, I always prayed as a single person – I and me, no We or us. Plurals were used in worship services and for table prayers when there were others present, but not at bedtime. I was in my late twenties when I found out why plurals are used outside gatherings: no one prays alone because every single person belongs to the unbroken chain of prayer that began when the world was born and will continue until all worlds come to an end. It’s a theological understanding common to Eastern Orthodox traditions that never quite made it into my childhood Sunday school classes.

Angels guarding those who sleep, every living thing standing in the unbroken chain of prayer as company – what profound comfort can come from these simple truths.

Good night. Sleep tight. See you in the morning light.

Angel Guardian, keep and preserve all of us from every evil, sickness, and grief.

Help us, O Lord, to be good, obedient, and kind.

I thank thee, O Lord, for all good things thou has sent to me during the past day. Let me spend this night in peace, and protect me from all harm. Amen.

[From A Manual of Eastern Orthodox Prayers, Crestwood, New York: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991, p. 16. For more on this series, click child’s nighttime prayer above.]