Author: robertkennedy

Withdrawal gains relief for a migrant.  What remains is steeped in the patience that the migrant couldn’t find enough of.  Withdrawal forces us to describe a world from memory, and leaves us wondering if we aren’t missing something that we never took the chance to know.  

Continue reading “WINTER”

Life runs together, until one day, we turn around and wonder how we got here. Like a sentence diagram, a dance with all generations in attendance, shows us where we’ve been.

Continue reading “SAINT PAUL’S FESTIVAL”

The kindest words that I ever heard from my mother were “Bless your heart.”  I’ve always understood the expression to mean something similar to the South Asian term, ‘Nameste‘, or ‘The Spirit of God in me recognizes the Spirit of God in you.’  

Continue reading “BLESS YOUR HEART”

Live long enough and the event you’ve attended most often in life will be a funeral.  The emotions we feel while attending one give a clue to what was special about the person.  When that person is a close family member, finding the words can be difficult.  Then, a memory will suffice. 

Continue reading “ALL DRESSED UP”

Do you ever have your head in the clouds? It could be the feeling of being untethered, or just the thin air but lofty thoughts abound up there.

Continue reading “FLOWER OF BOZEMAN”

We glance over the ordinary, expecting to see what we’ve always seen.  But when an ordinary event is seen under extraordinary circumstances, the impression can be awe-inspiring.   One night, while attending  the American Wilderness Leadership School in the Gros Ventre Wilderness of Wyoming, I looked up.  The altitude enhanced clarity of the western sky forever changed my view of the stars.   

Continue reading “MIDNIGHT PRAYER”

I attended a funeral yesterday, a familiar ritual that reminds us of our unfailing vulnerability.  A funeral reminds us of priorities and realigns our view of ourselves and our relationships with others.  I attended a funeral yesterday.   It was a good ache.

Continue reading “PASSED (for Todd)”

Who are we? How did we get here? And, where are we going? If we fail to answer those questions, how can we succeed at anything else?

Continue reading “MEETING OF MINDS”

There is very little that we truly know, and even less that we understand.  What we know is all we have.  Understanding is all we can hope for.  Before knowing and understanding, there is warmth  –  a fire in each of us that we graciously share.

Continue reading “KNOWING”

What can you say to a son who aspires to care for others, especially when those others are least able to care for themselves?  Eventually, all of us run out of options.  Then, we are left with one choice – to submit and entrust the outcome to another.   When the circumstances involve risks to our most precious possession, our life;  a threshold of intimacy is crossed that a relative few practitioners of medicine experience.

Continue reading “HE WHO WIELDS THE KNIFE”