Overflowing gutters. We’ve got a little bit of that where I’m living now in my new apartment. That means that puddles can form next to the house, which is never good news for someone living in the below-ground floor. One day I went outside during some hard rain, and there was a little pond for…
Some years ago, I spent a year visiting a small, poor community in Ecuador every Sunday. I visited with a few of the Franciscan sisters in the parish, and we were able to get a group of lectores going, a choir going, and a few leaders to lead Sundays celebration of the Word. More and…
I have a Facebook account so I can keep in touch with a lot of people at a distance. Recently I posted a picture of myself in front of a beautiful green field of soybeans plants that spread as far as the eye can see under the summer blue and cotton-balled sky. What a wonderful…
A few weeks ago, I was looking for a something to measure temperature and humidity indoors – that’s called a hygrometer. I found a nice, simple one online at Home Depot. It looked like the perfect fit for what I was looking for – and at just the right price. The website told me that…
A few days ago, I rode my bike to go to a used goods store to look for some things for my apartment. As I was riding up to the bike stand, I noticed that an employee was trying to move a piece of furniture through the entrance door, but the door was closing on…
When my older sister was born, there were problems. Her placenta had separated too early, and she hadn’t received enough nutrients and oxygen just before birth. She was born with severe damage to her brain that left her in a persistent vegetative state and prevented her from growing in almost every way. She remained that…
The last several weeks, Facebook was in bloom: here and there and everywhere, proud parents were posting pictures of their children in cap and gown, celebrating their graduations. Not being a parent, I can only imagine how it must feel to see something like the fruits of years of efforts. And amid all the congratulations…
In the house where I’m staying these days, there’s a new Keurig coffee maker. There’s a see-through water tank attached to the machine, and every now and then it has to be removed and taken over to a faucet and be refilled. Inside the water tank is a long, thin clear plastic thing-a-ma-jig that supports…
I’ve been taking to riding the bike around the city to get around these days. It saves money, gets me exercise, and helps reduce all the consumption that we all do in this world. It’s also fun – and dangerous. Bike lanes are a new thing, and everyone is just getting used to them. Every…
Just recently, I saw on the news that a house in Cambridge completely collapsed. I mean, it just entirely collapsed. The news article mentioned that a person who used to regularly walk by it said that it had looked for a long time that if you just sneezed on it, it would fall down. And…
I make videos sometimes to make available to share something I’ve come to discover about the Gospel as I live it. I sometimes look at the videos and laugh as I can’t help noticing that it looks amateur: scruffy with a 5 o’clock shadow, my used clothes on, a view of my small bedroom or…
Last year when I came to the rural village in Ecuador where I’ve been going I brought a game with me to play with both adults and kids. It’s called Bean-boozled. The idea is you have a large container of jelly beans of different colors. But here’s the thing: each color could be a fantastically…
Here in the village in Ecuador, we lost power on Good Friday afternoon at 5. That night, I sat in a chair in my room staring into pitch darkness and I opened my eyes as wide as I possibly could. I could feel my pupils dilating out to the maximum. Even with my eyes maxed…
Recently, I saw a long line of ants walking along here, each carrying a piece of leaves. Leafcutter ants cut out leaves many times heavier than themselves and bring them to their nest to make a pulp for food. How do they already know how to do that? When it’s time, a caterpillar spins a…
Some years ago, I decided to get a Christmas gift for a spiritual director that I had just stating to meet with that particular year. I didn’t want to get cash, so I thought I would go to a shopping center and look for something in a store. Later, I thought, why not just get…
