In the late sixties we moved from Minnesota to New Mexico. Perhaps because we were used to the rich black soil of the Plains,…
Margie’s 2015 Christmas Gift List
Books / Hospitality / Ordinary Life
Please Note: all books can be ordered through www.heartsandmindsbooks.com Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (Non-fiction) Author: Atul Gawande Metropolitan Books,…
Driving with the Brakes On: Why Doing Justice Is So Difficult
Culture / Maturity and Flourishing / Pluralistic World
Why does the health care system continue to fail millions? Why have poverty rates remained the same for thirty years? Why do problems like…
Facing Guns and Horror
Community / Pluralistic World / Spirituality
In a thoughtful and pained reflection, “The Inexplicable: Inside the mind of a mass killer,” Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard tries to comprehend the…
Emergency in the Garage
You do not want to begin your day finding a note on the counter that reads “Emergency in garage. Freezer door left open. Everything…
The Appearance of Virtue
Faith / Maturity and Flourishing / Spirituality
I set out one night When the tide was low There were signs in the sky But I did not know I’d be caught…
Is Everything Political?
Community / Ordinary Life / Pluralistic World / Spirituality
In Our Only World (2015), Wendell Berry argues that people must be careful to resist the temptation of politicization: the habit of mind that…
A Conversation About Ferguson
Community / Culture / Safe Place / Spirituality
Introduction Meet Greg Pitchford and Luke Bobo. Luke is a 55 year-old African-American male and Greg is a 51 year-old White-American male. Luke lives…
Welcoming strangers
“Cain went away,” we are told in the opening pages of scripture, fracturing the human race into “us” and “strangers” (Genesis 4:16). The division…
Spring, please come
Community / Family / Ordinary Life
We live in a climate where the seasons are sharp. There is no mistaking them. Winter freezes everything including our senses; but they waken…