Russellings of the Spirit

compassion

  • An Ode to Chores

    Got any chores needing done? I’m your guy! During my lifetime (feel free to add the word “extensive” here if you so choose), I have had a very up and down relationship with the whole concept of chores. Growing up, I hated… Continue reading

  • Plagued by Purpose

    There was a time… I remember it well… when the answer was so simple, it wasn’t even necessary to ask the question. Those were the days when you only had to look one branch down on the family tree to… Continue reading

  • Did You Notice?

    Sometimes it is easier not to notice.  I’m not talking about merely SEEING… skimming briskly across the surface, dipping in a toe here, then here… … absorbing just enough substance from which to fashion a quip, a comment, a post…… Continue reading

  • EST-CE QUE TU PARLES FRANCAIS?

    Joan and I have been in the south of France for the past week. And when I say, “the south of France,” I mean THE SOUTH. As in, imagining we hear banjos and guitars having a pick-off duel as we round… Continue reading

  • My Saints

    He was a slick-fielding, light hitting second baseman for the church softball team. He sold microscopes for the E. Leitz Company. Later, he heard a call that changed not only his life, but the lives of everyone in his family.… Continue reading

  • Mercy Me

    WARNING: This post sounds a lot more like a rant than a thoughtful, well-considered pondering. But let’s withhold judgment for a minute and see where it goes.  Who knows? We might end up with something with depth and meaning after… Continue reading

  • Well, I declare!

    Despite instincts to the contrary, I regularly try to keep an open mind. Life has shown me again and again the hazards of latching – iron-fistedly – onto a particular thesis or paradigm. God seems to take great delight, in… Continue reading

  • Like a bridge…

    When you’re weary, feeling small When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all, I’m on your side, oh, when times get rough And friends just can’t be found Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay… Continue reading

  • “We’re All In This Together!”

    Yes, we are. But in lots of ways, no, we absolutely are not. This morning on NPR I heard the story of Daniel Garcia of Houston, Texas. (https://www.npr.org/2020/07/18/892593769/texas-man-on-what-its-like-being-evicted-during-the-covid-19-pandemic). And it broke me. Garcia is 46 years old. He was laid… Continue reading

  • To Callous, or Not to Callous

    Blogosphere, meet my guitars. The Martin Dreadnought acoustic is the one on the left and the Fender American Stratocaster (with double humbucker pickup) is the one on the right. Guitars, meet the blogosphere. I love these instruments and miss them… Continue reading