A scramble for parking greets us, then the festive aisles to survive. These shelves have been stocked with seasonal cheer since the night when the dead arose. Now celebration cake replaces pumpkins to carve, and the shock is swapped with the joyful trimmings of the time. Yet what room is there? I negotiate tight spacesContinue reading “Hyfrydol in the Suburbs”
Tag Archives: God
In Translation: Restless Heart/Urolige Hjerte
Herre, du har skabt os til dig, og vort hjerte er uroligt, indtil det finder hvile hos dig. Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. (St Augustine, Confessions) When I first started learning Danish last year and was looking for anything to help me, IContinue reading “In Translation: Restless Heart/Urolige Hjerte”
Spring Cleaning (II)
I go to prepare a place for you. We do too; with unsure anticipation, we make a space atop the stairs, with bunting and books and animals on the walls, a cot, tiny clothes, a place for your toys. We also prepare our days, our thoughts. They too make space for the big rearrange, thisContinue reading “Spring Cleaning (II)”
Broken Syllables
We know little of the creature, till we know it as it stands related to the Creator: single letters, and syllables uncomposed, are no better than nonsense. (Richard Baxter) Al- In the beginning was the Word. Pha And we too were words, the sounds of breath from His lips: Adam Let us make Image LikenessContinue reading “Broken Syllables”
Unownable Things
It’s become a bit of a tradition for me to write gratitude lists on my birthday, yet each year it feels like I am discovering gratitude anew. While I always remember doing it the previous year, it never comes naturally to me. Instead, I find myself thinking that another strategy might be better this yearContinue reading “Unownable Things”
Unexpected Faith: Terrence Malick and the “Love that loves us”
American philosopher-turned-filmmaker Terrence Malick does not make crowd-pleasers. He does not even feel any great compulsion to actually make films, although he has made more films in the last decade than he did for the first 30 years of his career. A little like Marilynne Robinson’s novels, Malick’s films emerge from some slow, meditative, beauty-processorContinue reading “Unexpected Faith: Terrence Malick and the “Love that loves us””
Philosophical Crumbs: Haiku for Kierkegaard
A friend of mine recently said that he had tried to read Kierkegaard but hadn’t made it. “I need the children’s book version,” he said. Probably not an unusual experience. While I’m not sure I’m the one to provide the children’s book, I thought I could do the next best thing: to try to putContinue reading “Philosophical Crumbs: Haiku for Kierkegaard”
Clutching at Light: For Leonard Cohen
…everything that is illuminated becomes a light… (Saint Paul) Too dark, Leonard. Just after Solstice, the days still short, the dark surprised me in its early arrival, and your first song grabbed me with its midnight-pitch grip, and Isaac bound by demons, crying, Here I am, Lord. These days are dark enough; I turned fromContinue reading “Clutching at Light: For Leonard Cohen”
No Ordinary Sundays
Before you lies my strength and my weakness; preserve the one, heal the other. Before you lies my knowledge and my ignorance; where you have opened to me, receive me as I come in; where you have shut to me, open to me as I knock. Let me remember you, let me understand you, letContinue reading “No Ordinary Sundays”
Uncovered Gems #5: The Danish Psalmist
In the Danish Golden Age of literature and philosophy, there were three significant names that still stand out today: Hans Christian Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard and N.F.S. Grundtvig. The non-Danish world has very much heard of the first two but the third is as unknown as it is unpronounceable. And perhaps understandably so. He is ofContinue reading “Uncovered Gems #5: The Danish Psalmist”
The Consolations of Writing 