#AdventWord #Gratify

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Frustrating and gratifying! That’s bird photography for me. This family of Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) cruised past me in my kayak in the salt marsh on Mobile Sound one winter day a few years ago. The light was golden, the water calmly reflective, and their formation perfect. But then, of course, the moment I click, the two females in the middle turn their heads away. One more addition to a huge collection of “near perfect” shots! Aww, well. Beautiful anyway, and gratifying, especially because Nature Serve’s conservation rating of this species is “Vulnerable” in Alabama. Nothing motivates my photography more…

#AdventWord #Reveling

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The year was 1979. The revelers (above) were part of a huge street party that featured “clubs” dressed in the group’s uniform dancing, singing, drinking, and parading through the streets of Burgos, España. I was an exchange student studying the language and taking hundreds of photos. It could just as well have been New Orleans during Mardi Gras season. Or the streets of Philadelphia where I attended graduate school and witnessed celebrating a World Series win. Or the Tokyo Festival or Paris’ Bastille Day. Or most any other city in the world that engages in some kind of at least…

#AdventWord #Tribes

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Tribe. Such a double-edged sword. To be in? Warmth. Security. Companionship. To be out? It is by no means coincident that we say “out in the cold” when someone is rejected by the tribe. Tribal cooperation and alliances? Productive. Peace building. Tribal warfare? Brutal. Deadly. Destructive. How do the tribes we cherish define who is in and who is out? How do our tribes define and maintain their boundaries? Advent is a good time to think about it.

#AdventWord #Again

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Cycles. The universe is organized by and around cycles. For those of us who practice the Christian faith, today, November 30, 2025, is the beginning of two important cycles. The first and most obvious is the annual cycle of seasons that guide our worship: Advent, followed by Christmastide, and so on. But the annual cycle of the church year is part of a larger, 3-year cycle created by the “Revised Common Lectionary,” whereby we schedule readings from the Bible to make sure we cover the most important stuff every three years. Today is Advent 1 of Year A. Cycles. Things…