David Hahn, well-loved Cook County artist, has a new honor. One of his pieces has been accepted at the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame! “Grandpa Dave,” who each year completes portraits of Cook County High School athletic teams and the individual players, has had a life career in illustration and artistry, especially in sports-artistry. (Including as sole illustrator for... READ MORE >
A couple of days ago, at 6:45 a.m. Cook County time, I attended (from my home) a meeting being held in Brooklyn, New York. There were 63 of us, ALL there, together, most of us strangers to one another. We were meeting in the no-longer-new-fangled method of Internet connection. At first it looks like a collection of photos on a... READ MORE >
This week someone said to me, “With all this covid stuff, all the anxiety of “what next?” in politics and economics, all my friends, family and me isolated! I feel like a refugee who doesn’t know the rules or what is coming next; whose belongings and sense-of-belonging are scattered-out along a journey to an unknown.” What a description! Being scattered.... READ MORE >
“There just ain’t no tellin’,” my Texas granddad used to say, “what- you’re- gonna-see, in what it is you’re goin’-ta see.” That tongue-twisting phrase popped into mind on Tuesday’s gray sky afternoon. Maybe for you, too, a first glance at gray skies brings thoughts of, “darn, the weather’s changing.” Or “huh, no artist would get out their paints for that;... READ MORE >
“…come quickly…my helper, my deliverer…do not tarry!” When have you known a time in which these imploring words could have been yours? “But as for me, I am poor and needy; come to me quickly, O God. You are my helper and my deliverer; O Lord, do not tarry.” (Psalm 70:5) ————————— It matters not your political leanings. It matters... READ MORE >
“In this time, this time of being tested, what are we to do?” This question is so deeply Spiritual, describing with sadness any current situation—coronavirus in the year 2020; polio epidemic in the 1950s and 1960s—or to the seemingly too “always-present-sorrow-when-a-person-much-loved dies from the illness of suicide. For suicide there is no beginning era, no ending era. It invades a... READ MORE >
How often in recent weeks we’ve thought: nothing is ordinary; nothing seems quite right. A pandemic health crisis has concerned us, and a sense that “Everything seems deeply colored by tints of ‘nothing is usual’ even as everything tastes as if the colors and ingredients of life were “off” has consumed us. In these weeks, for many of us, everything... READ MORE >
In this Day, we go forth…Not Easily In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge. Psalm 71:1 Dear beloved children of God, each of you, all of you, all of us: How do we do this time? HOW DO WE DO THIS? How do we do this? How do we go through these hard times, lament times, times “without.” How... READ MORE >
“Greatly disturbed in spirit and greatly moved, Jesus began to weep.” John 11:33 Jesus’ friend Lazarus falls ill and dies, and Jesus is moved to sorrow. God’s Spirit, the Spirit who is also one with Jesus, stirs Jesus to lament with all those gathered in sorrow at the death. Sisters Martha and Mary, friends, Jesus himself, Jesus is brought to... READ MORE >
Each year it seems a new time comesWhen hearts are moved, and heartsare wonWhen lights upon a tree, set for festive joyTurn brightAnd reverse the dark of satan’s ployWho’d make us think:“There isn’t a God !… How could thatbe?Look at all the dangers troubles turmoils Lack of good and daily toils.” “There isn’t a God! How could therebe?”satan would so... READ MORE >
