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Gratitude for 30 years
January 20, 1996, Melinda Johnson and I were married at St. Elizabeth’s in Farragut, TN. The day was clear and cold, blue skies and sub-freezing temperatures. Melinda was absolutely beautiful in her wedding dress (which I was to learn later was held together by safety pins–the alterations were not sewn as well as they should Continue reading
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10,000 Days
A few months ago, a friend of mine recommended downloading an app that can count up from a date in the past, telling you how many days it’s been since that date. He said that looking at the number of days since his first wife died not as how many days since the last time Continue reading
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AI Is No Cure for Loneliness
I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but believe that this post carries prophetic weight. A Rolling Stone article I read recently has had me thinking and has prompted me to write a caution to anyone who might want to use ChatGPT or any other AI as a means to assuage Continue reading
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Celebration of Life Isn’t Enough
I wrote the following 10 years ago today, after the funeral of an infant. May her memory be eternal! Today sharpened for me why I think a “celebration of life” is nowhere near as helpful or as healing to the soul as a straight-out, honest-to-God (and honest-to-ourselves) funeral. Today at St. Anne’s we buried an Continue reading
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Pascha! And then…
Pascha is the apex of Christian worship. It is the Queen of Feasts, the ultimate joy that we share. Orthodox christians around the world gather shortly before midnight Saturday night in order to begin the services as early in the day of Sunday as possible, and we sing and pray for 3 hours. And then Continue reading
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The Mother of God
Today (May 3) is Good Friday on the Orthodox calendar. What better day to meditate on the Cross than this? This year my heart is drawn to the Theotokos, the Mother of God. In particular, a reality that I should have seen years before, but I’d never connected the dots, nor heard anyone else do Continue reading
The Joyful Widower 