Let me tell you a story: Fifteen years ago, I was in line at a grocery store, behind two Hispanic men checking out. The clerk—a high school girl—got frustrated because her customers had trouble with the English language. That she…

Arizona, 2015 I lower myself down onto the dusty ground in the shade of a withering tree. Surrounded by nothing but rocks, shrubs, and long stretches of desert in every direction, I welcome the rest at this stopping point --…

Many of you are doubtlessly familiar with Mary Oliver's "The Summer's Day"--with its moving invitation to attentiveness and to relishing one's "one wild and precious life." But in these long days of "ordinary time," we might just need a reminder…

It is Saturday morning, and we’re pushing toward mid-July. Are you up early like me, trying to seek out a moment of quiet before the swelter settles over the day? Are you setting your sights on the day ahead, or…

Sitting at St. Paul Catholic Church in Marty, South Dakota, we (fifty young people and their youth leaders) listened as Sr. Miriam spoke about her time living among the Yankton Sioux. "Yankton" and "Sioux" aren't the names they prefer; they…

I will always remember the first birthday card my new mother-in-law gave to me as her daughter-in-law. I don't remember the card itself, or the message written in it. Rather, I remember the envelope and the names she wrote on…