Say What?

I stopped and chatted with some neighbors last night as Charlie and I were finishing our walk. They were in their driveway working on a craft project for their church. They said  the church  they attend is made up of mostly military families and is led by a former Army chaplain. They talked a little about their current sermon series and what they liked about their church. It was a bit of a sales pitch and while I could appreciate that, I had to tell them that even though I'm a very spiritual person, at this point in my life I simply have so little desire to be involved in a church again. I didn't tell them that my beliefs no longer align well with Christian orthodoxy. I'm leaning now toward a belief in reincarnation. I find that option an interesting one to contemplate. Nobody among us knows for sure what's on the other side but many will say they do, just as I used to think I did.  A snapshot of where I'm at at this point in my life.  I still feel that there's

Rachel and Drew were married last Sunday in the backyard of a Vrbo they rented along the shore of Lake Superior north of Lutsen, MN. It was such a nice and memorable wedding with Drew's brother Colton officiating the ceremony. It was mostly limited to immediate family—about 17 of us—as they were unsure what the status of the pandemic would be when they began making plans a year ago or so. With the rise of infections due to the Delta variant, it was a wise move on their part to keep it small. They plan to have a much larger reception at Drew's parent's home near Rochester next summer. Tammy used the  Rover app to find a couple in Apple Valley (a few miles away) to watch the pups for us. We had been to their home a month earlier to meet with them and to give the pups a feel for their temporary home. We left Charlie and Cotton with them the night before we left the cities. All seemed to be okay as we left for Lutsen late the next morning. More on this later.  Tammy arranged f

I've been meaning to sit down and tap out a blog post for several days but my heart hasn't been in it. The things I want to write about — to make note of here as I try and create some kind of a timeline to my life for personal reasons — are somewhat depressing things to ponder.  There is so much that's been happening in our world and much of it is very concerning to me. Mostly, I worry about the political divide within our country and if there's anything we can do about it because unless we do, I see our democracy slipping from our tenuous grasp while a hard-right fascist movement waits in the wings to replace it. A few short years ago I never could have imagined myself thinking that, much less putting it in writing. But it's where I am. Unless we can maintain a healthy democracy (we currently aren't doing so), other pressing matters can't be dealt with as effectively as they should be — concerns about climate change and income inequality will continue to b