Echoes and Moments

The last few weeks have put me through the wringer. I can scarcely remember the last time so many converging factors amounted to a barrage of crises to manage. External circumstances and the changing landscapes of work launched me into a realm of terrifying speculation about whether or not I would have a job at this time next year. If things stayed the same, or continued to develop at their current rate, I would be forced to leave my ministry assignment at the end of the academic year, earlier than I would have planned. My mind grappled with a catastrophic sense of having to make a decision without the freedom to do so unencumbered by the failures of others. I have been reeling to recover a sense of rhythm, clarity, and peace in the midst of a difficult and ongoing process to move forward. Luckily, I had the chance to have a literal escape by visiting some close friends for the weekend. Although Santa Barbara is in the midst of its warmest months of "summer" (a phenom...

Spring and Fall, by Gerard Manley Hopkins Márgarét, áre you gríeving Over Goldengrove unleaving? Leáves like the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you? Ah! ás the heart grows older It will come to such sights colder By and by, nor spare a sigh Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie; And yet you wíll weep and know why. Now no matter, child, the name: Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same. Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed What heart heard of, ghost guessed: It ís the blight man was born for, It is Margaret you mourn for.