Come, come, whoever you are.Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.It doesn’t matter.Ours is not a caravan of despair.Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times.Come, yet again, come, come.–Rumi

The hymn, “Mary, did you know?” has come in for lots of criticism of late. One meme I saw on Facebook accused it of being a “mansplaining” of what Mary obviously already knew because an angel had told her. Well, ok. Far be it from me to contest that patriarchy infiltrates Christianity today! But, really, I have also read the words Gabriel spoke to her, and if she understood everything, if she really got the whole story from Gabriel’s words, why did she have to ponder those words? And why did she ponder again several years later when Jesus stayed…

Laugh as much as you breathe. Love as long as you live. –Rumi I have a story about this photo–a funny story. But it forms a chapter in the book I’m writing, and I will begin posting chapters from my book with this one right after Christmas. So you’ll have to wait. In the meantime, smile at the incongruity of a tiny gold filigree-winged dragonfly serving as a fascinator for an alligator.

The Aboriginal people of Australia say the Spirit of All Life dreamed the world into existence, then passed “the secret of dreaming” to humankind. With a wealth of raw material with which to work, humankind has indeed dreamed into existence much that is beautiful and wonderful and worthy. I think of music, art, the miracles of modern medicine, the joy of global awareness and interconnection made possible by modern technology. But then I also think of the tragic facts that people die daily for lack of access to medical care and lack of food on a planet overflowing with food….