The holy earth. We must take such care of it. It must take such care of us. This side of Paradise, we are each of us so nearly all the other has.
Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark
E is for Earth
D is for Darkness
The original creation of light (Genesis 1) itself is almost too extraordinary to take in. The little cook-out on the beach (John 21) is almost too ordinary to take seriously. … Only a saint or a visionary can begin to understand God setting the very sun on fire in the heavens, and therefore God takes another tack. By sheltering a spark with a pair of cupped hands and blowing on it, the Light of the World gets enough of a fire going to make breakfast. It’s not apt to be your interest in cosmology or even in theology that draws you to it so much as that empty feeling in your stomach. You don’t have to understand anything very complicated. All you’re asked to do it to take a step or two forward through the darkness and start digging in.
Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark
A Teachable Moment
The teacher set the pile of over-sized photographs on his desk. He picked up the first one and showed it to the class.
“Okay, students. Who can tell me what this is?” he asked.
Susie raised her hand. The teacher pointed to her and she said, “That’s a church!”
The teacher beamed. “That’s right,” he said, pointing to the steeple and the cross.
He held up the next photograph. “Who can tell me what this is?”
Joey blurted out, “Grocery store!”
The teacher nodded and said, “That’s the correct answer, Joey, but please remember to raise your hand.” He pointed out how to identify it as a grocery store — the advertisements in the windows, the shopping carts outside.
Next was a mosque, correctly identified by Kalil. The teacher pointed out the minaret.
He worked his way through the pile. A school — with yellow buses in front. A restaurant — with outside diners. A gas station — with pumps. The students identified each one.
Finally, he held up this photograph:
Silence. Finally Ethan said, “I know where is it. Does that count?”
The teacher said, “Can you tell the class where it is?”
Ethan gave detailed directions to the building, but added, “My dad told me to stay away from that part of town.”
The teacher ignored his last words. “You can all come visit me here over the summer. I have a special place to show you but it has to be our secret. Come in this door and call my name.”
This is my submission to the Unicorn Challenge. It feels creepy and yucky — so I apologize ahead of time. I had no idea what it was a picture of — and my mind went to creepyland. I watch too many crime shows!
The Unicorn Challenge has two rules: 1) No more than 250 words, and 2) use the photograph as a prompt.
C is for Chanting
Words wear out after a while, especially religious words… When a prayer or a psalm or a passage from the Gospels is chanted, we hear the words again… We remember that they are not only meaning but music and mystery. … Of course, chanting wears out after a while too.
Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark
One of my children said that when people pray prayers together in a service they sound like robots. I suppose it could sound that way.
I like how Buechner refers to them as music and mystery.
They are polished rocks, made smooth and beautiful by time and use.
Talking to Martin Hopkins
Hey, Martin!
I am angry! Disheartened —
Kept that dory near your boat
[FLOAT!
GOD DAMMIT!}
You know, we ran the gamut
Of Nantucket fishing holes
Shoals
I’m waiting —
Waiting — we should be baiting
Trawling hauling up some catch…
Scratch
That daydream!
Sitting on this pier, sunbeam
Flickers on the water, but
What?
What happened?
You’re gone. I tip my cap and
Move on. But, brother, I cry
Why?
This is my response to the W3 prompt by Leslie Scoble. (Congrats, Leslie!)
The prompt: Write a monologue poem in which a character—historical, fictional, or original—takes center stage. Step into their voice and let them speak. Who are they, and whom are they addressing? Reveal their personality through their words, tone, and actions.
- Set the Scene – Your character must be seated on a bench. It could be a park bench, a courtroom seat, a workbench, or even the dreaded school “naughty bench.”
- Use Subtext – What remains unsaid is just as important as what is spoken. Let hidden emotions or unspoken truths add depth.
- Engage the Audience – Though alone, their words should feel directed at someone or something—whether a specific listener, a memory, or the universe itself.
- Finish Strong – End with a revelation, a twist, or a lingering thought that leaves an impact.
This is loosely based on some family history of my great-grandfather, Martin Hopkins, who was a Nantucket fisherman who died when his schooner went down in a storm in 1899.
B is for Boredom
You can be bored by virtually anything if you put your mind to it… To be bored is to turn down cold whatever life is offering you at the moment. It is to cast a jaundiced eye at life in general including most of all your own life. You feel nothing is worth getting excited about because you are yourself not worth getting excited about.
~~ Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark
I can honestly say that boredom has not been a part of my life. Instead of nothing to do, I have a thousand things to do and not time enough for them all.
I liked this quote because it reminded that the people who are bored are simply not engaged in life. I think about the pall of depression that can settle over our elderly who are in long-term care settings. It’s hard to be engaged there — but a visit from a friend or family member can brighten a whole day. It sparks memories and conversation. It reminds them that are loved and remembered and valued.
A is for Apologists
“C. S. Lewis once said something to the effect that no Christian doctrine ever looked so threadbare to him as when he had just finished successfully defending it. … In order to defend the faith successfully — which is the business of apologists — they need to reduce it to a defendable size. It’s easier to hold a fortress against the enemy than to hold a landscape.”
~~ Frederich Buechner, Whistling in the Dark
A is for Apologists defending a landscape, not a fortress.
My faith is pretty threadbare these days. I look at my country embracing “Christian” principles and am ashamed.
Jesus never behaved the way these people are behaving. We’re back to The Crusades, a most shameful part of Christian history.
When we feel that we have to defend God, we are, in a sense, thinking ourselves bigger and stronger than God. He doesn’t need me to defend Him. Seriously.
What He wants is for me to be kind and loving. To emulate Him.
We “defend” God not with a sword, but by being kind. We demonstrate not with angry words and violent actions, but with gentleness. If someone thinks differently than we do, we still call them beloved, not lunatic.
I will defend the landscape that is my faltering faith by planting seeds. My sword has been beaten into a plowshare.
TToT — March 30
Well, I finally let my employer know the date for 1my hip replacement surgery. Yes, I’m thankful that it’s going to happen. It gives me hope that when the pain is bad it will not always be so. It took me a couple of weeks to put that date on the work calendar, in part because the news had to settle in my head before I could share it. I haven’t had a surgery in close to 25 years so this is a little anxiety-provoking.
My son had 2hip surgery on Monday. His was a bigger and different surgery than what I’m having. He was told he should plan on five days in the hospital following the surgery. He went home on Wednesday, though. I’m taking that as a good sign.
My replacement for my church job has been struggling. I went over multiple times this week to help her. I am SO thankful that — whether it’s genetics or how I was raised — I have the ability to 3listen, to 4think, and to 5learn. Honestly, those are things I take for granted. Seeing them missing in someone gave me pause.
I am also thankful for 6Frederick Buechner. I’ve had a bookshelf of his books for years, but I finally started reading him. SO GOOD. I find that I am constantly jotting down quotes from him to help me remember his wisdom, his humor, the way he ties together everyday things with the spiritual. In fact, the book I started the other day, Whistling in the Dark: An ABC Theologized, gave me the idea of using him as a launchpad for the 7April A-to-Z Challenge. I didn’t complete the challenge last year, but I’ll try again this year. It will be a Buechner quote and a little collage to go with it.
The new director of the facility where I work started having 8staff meetings once a month. You are probably wondering what’s so great about that. Let me tell you — we’ve never had staff meetings before, the kind where anyone who works there can attend. It’s huge. He has had two now, and after each one I have felt encouraged and happy about the place I work.
The director shared a recent 9story about staff intervening on behalf of a little girl. It was the kind of story that made me feel sad for the girl, sad for the world, angry at the situation, and proud of my co-workers.
I had 10lunch with my youngest daughter yesterday. Grown up children are the best!
Different
“How many times have I told you to simply fit in?” Vikrati said.
“But, Dad!” Hernan pressed his lips together. “I try! Look what I’m wearing!” He brushed his hands down his body, over the worn Florida t-shirt with a flaking image of the sun setting on the ocean and the faded blue jeans. He gestured towards his worn canvas sneakers. “This is how all the kids dress!”
“Fitting in is more than your clothing,” Vikrati replied. “It’s -“
Hernan interjected. “Dad, I’m doing well in school, but not too well. I make sure I get things wrong on the tests. I turn in papers late sometimes, just to get the lower grade. I sit in the back and sometimes talk when the teacher is talking, just to get in trouble.” He sighed. “I’m really doing my best!”
Vikrati sighed too. He looked at the boy. His shoulders were slumped and his head was down. Clearly, he was trying.
“Our mission is important,” he finally said. “It’s not just our family in this town, but there are thousands and thousands of us around the world.”
“I know,” Hernan said. “I don’t think I’ve ever done anything to make anyone suspect that I’m any different from them.”
“Then how do you explain this?” Vikrati asked. He pulled half a drinking glass from a bag. There was a sharp jagged edge where the upper half had been bitten off.
Hernan paled. “I’m sorry, Dad. I was just so hungry.”
This is my contribution to Unicorn Challenge. The rules are simple: no more than 250 words and use the photo as a prompt.
Emotions as Objects
This is the W3 Challenge for this week, given by Anupama, the Poet of the Week.
- Challenge: Reimagine emotions as objects;
- What if feelings took shape? Anger could be a blade, sharp and biting. Loneliness might be an echo in an empty room;
- Poetic form: Any
- Length: No more than 12 lines
I struggled with this. My first attempt was using the Irish Snam Suad. I put the rules below the poem — and I, of course, didn’t follow all of them. Also, is introvert an emotion or just a state of being?
A closed box
Rarely talks
Readily
Disconcert
-ed by crowds
Too too loud
In a shroud
Introvert
Rules for Snam Suad:
- all lines have 3 syllables with the following rhyme pattern: aabcdddc
- lines four and eight are 3-syllable words, all other lines end in monosyllabic words
- lines two and three share consonance
- lines three and four, six and seven, and four and seven share alliteration
- line seven uses alliteration
Frankly, I was not satisfied with my introvert poem so I tried again with a different Irish form: Deibide baise fri toi and different object-emotion pairing. Water — Peace. It makes sense to me, but I’m not sure I communicated it.
The water —
When the world is a-totter
I go to the lake to lease
Peace
Sea, river
Stream, pond — they all deliver
From the frenetic to calm
Balm
Rules for Deibide baise fri toi:
- The poem and/or stanzas within the poem are quatrains (or 4-line stanzas).
- Rhyme scheme for each stanza is a simple aabb pattern.
- Lines one and two rhyme on a two-syllable word; lines three and four rhyme on a monosyllabic word.
- Line one has three syllables, line two has seven, line three has seven, and line four has one
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 