Today is hump day for my last week here in Chicago. And I'm really looking forward to going back home this Saturday. But meanwhile, I'm having some great opportunities in my classes. This week I'm in a class focusing on the Arts. PLUS, I've even been learning to carve stone. Really!! I've carved an Eagle. It's a male eagle on one side and a ( Read more... )

WOW!! SO MUCH SNOW. This has been pretty unbelievable. BUT, thank goodness I don't have to drive in this. Yesterday, however, I had to go to a class. It was pretty bad walking on the way - then while we were in class, there was really a BLIZZARD. I was a little afraid to walk back to the apartment, but it cleared up and some other folks that ( Read more... )

This week I'm in two different classes. I'm taking "Music as the Doorway" from 9 to 12 and "Spiritual Journey Workshop" from 2 to 5. The morning class started today and will meet through Friday. The afternoon class starts tomorrow and will meet through Saturday. The morning class is the one that will address "The Mozart Effect" and will ( Read more... )

Today at church here in Chicago, Melissa Harris-Lacewell was the guest speaker. She used as her text the Galations verses related to being known by your fruits. She also provided a biblical text from Mark that is more troubling about fruit. That's the one in which Jesus is hungry and approaches a fig tree but sees that it has no figs -- and he ( Read more... )

Things have been pretty busy for me here. Last night I preached at Vespers. My sermon was "What Time is It? A Post Menopausal Reading of Ecclesiastes 3. I think it was QUITE a change for this group -- because they usually do not have sermons with humor - and this one had quite a bit. But even these "frozen chosen" really seemed to enjoy a ( Read more... )

I was in class all day today with 19 other other seminarians and our professor David Bumbaugh. This class was pretty stimulating -- yet at the end of the day, I was very tired. Fortunately, my neighbor, Michael Tino, cooked for 6 of us that are in this building. That was quite a chore since two folks are vegetarians, one is allergic to flour and ( Read more... )

Last night three other students went with me into the City to a Blues Club. We enjoyed the singing of "Big Time Sarah" and a Blues band. Plus we even did a little dancing on their small dance floor. NOW I feel like I've been to Chicago! This morning I attended the UU church here in Hyde Park. It was okay -- but I would have preferred to be in ( Read more... )

Crickets, Bullfrogs, and a little dog barking ( Read more... )

This speaker at our conference indicated that she didn't care about compassion. She viewed compassion from a very paternalistic perspective. She believed that our focus should be on justice instead. Some folks disagreed with her. I certainly understand her concern. And yet it seems to me that we need compassion and justice! I'll have to read ( Read more... )

One of my fellow students has a van that has one of those alarms that goes off if someone bothers the vehicle. The horn beeps over and over again and the lights flash, etc. Well, anyway -- her van was parked right outside my window and last night - every time a gust of wind or a bunch of snow would blow on it, the alarm went off. I got very ( Read more... )