-
The Inevitable Weight of Reading
There’s a certain heaviness that follows a good book. You can feel it shift and change depending on your engagement with the text, as if it’s growing larger and heavier with your constant attention and interest. Last year, I read a record number of books, 74, to be exact. Usually, if I hit 30-35 books,…
-
Questions for the Confession Booth
What do the church janitors whisper when they clean the confession booths? Do they ever find strangers’ forgotten items? A tube of chapstick slipped from a pocket. A wad of tissue crumpled and warm. A carving of two lover’s initials. The wood stained from hundreds of hands and asses. Something sticky in the corner. They…
-
Talking Politics at Dinner
I’ve always been one who jumps head-first into political discourse. A fair discussion/debate has always been entertaining for me. I like making connections between our current socioeconomic issues and philosophy and history and religion and societal expectations. But lately, with the divisive nature of people’s opinions and the abundance of misinformation, these conversations are increasingly…
-
Winter Layers
It’s been cold lately, and I’m getting tired of all the layers. Layers of clothes to stay warm. Layers of darkness as the night dominates. Layers of emotion. The winter has always been a melancholic season for me, and I think that’s fitting, given the freezing death all around during that time of year. I…
-
Liturgy at the Cafe
How glad I am to share a Sunday communion with a latte and a dog in his winter coat. His soft brown fur and puppy dog eyes look up at me with a sweetness only dogs can muster. I politely introduce myself, compliment his good looks, and then say hello to his owner. That’s how…
-
A Cigarette at Dusk
In the gloom of dusk, under the light of a single overhead bulb, she sits at the kitchen table with a cigarette balanced between two fingers. The smoke twists and twirls, waltzing away into the long night. A pile of bobby pins and a stray hair elastic teeter at the wood’s edge, half discarded from…
CupsOfSilver 