Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father. Colossians 3:17 The sun still hangs over the horizon when I reach the summit of Hochblauen on Sunday afternoon. Our local mountain, Hochblauen is truly a hill with a hotel at the…
Category: Learning
An Account of Blessings: 27th Birthday Edition
Taco Salad Surprise Lunch: 1 Rousing renditions of “Happy Birthday”: 5 Birthday Cakes: 3 Icabod Crane Piñata: 1 Times Watching Disney’s 1949 “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (narrated by Bing Crosby!) With Eleventh Graders: 2 Long Walk Through Golden Forest: 1 Notes of love and greeting from friends, family and students: Countless Thanks to all, near…
Gifts, Poems, Accidents
Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart. Ecclesiastes 5:19-20 I’ve never…
Knowledge of Good and Evil
The epilogue of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible hangs in silence in the last minutes of class, images of haunted farms and wrongly-executed non-witches dispersing like smoke into the sunny Friday afternoon. I congratulate my students on finishing the first book of the year, and ask them what they think. The reply is nearly unanimous: We don’t like…
Outward Spirals
It’s never too late to change the pace. Oh, how the days creep up on you, But the goodness is something you don’t have to chase ‘Cause it’s following you. And all you’ll hear is the music. And beauty stands before you. And love comes back around again, It’s a carousel, my friend. Vanessa Carlton,…
Rooted and Grounded in Love
“… And that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17b-19 Since my own high…
To My Students
Today was our last day of classes at Black Forest Academy. Though finals are still ahead and plenty of events loom in the schedule next week, I thought I’d acknowledge this momentous day by posting the letters I read to my classes today. Thanking God, tonight, for the grace and prayers that have made this…
The Explorers
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding” I’m not the leader of this expedition. I’m usually a leader these days, whether in the classroom or on the track or, as…
The Long Run
There’s only one seat left when I get on the track bus. Well, two seats really, but the one in the front technically belongs to a baby, and she should probably stick with her mom, Distance Coach, for now. That leaves one seat, way in the back. It’s been ages since I was a “back…
Real Life
“Hope is a thing with feathers, that perches on the soul,” she begins, swaying a little and looking down. Her voice gains strength as she reads the familiar words. Another student snaps a few pictures, and in only twelve lines she is done. With a sigh of relief, amid two dozen clapping hands, she sits…
The Way Home 