Latest Posts
Do Good Educators ‘Impose’ on Their Students?
I will cut to the chase and assert that properly understood, parents and teachers do, or should, ‘impose’ something on their children or students. Here I follow one of the Oxford definitions of impose: ‘to place authoritatively.’ An ever-controversial issue is whether...
Facing the Challenge of Marriage
Marriage is perhaps the most striking paradox in the material cosmos. How can doing marriage right be at once so necessary and so difficult? Yet in this, it is the perfect mirror of human life itself. While life is not simply about marriage, or in any case not with...
Finding Joy in Going Back to Work: 2 Suggestions
At this time of year when many of us must ‘go back to work’ after a break, we can wonder about the place of work in our life. It makes me think of when I first read Wendell Berry and E.F. Schumacher commenting that our work has become a chore to be avoided. I felt...
Time, Change, and Youth of the New Year
Around the New Year we can feel out of sorts. The relentless march of time strikes home, just as we are wrapping up our more intense celebration of holy days. As on a birthday, we reflect on the duration of our life. Aging and its burdens can loom large. And the past...
Caroling and Reading: To Continue Our Celebration
Our celebration of Christmas is ongoing. This is not about ‘making a point’ or offering a corrective to others. It is a matter of taking the opportunity to express our joy and gratitude, as well as our resolve that the birth of Christ make a real difference in our...
The Christmas Lesson for Our Age: Scrooge
Dicken’s A Christmas Carol speaks to all of us at Christmas time by raising the central issue of human life: priorities. What do we really prioritize each day? The story’s powerful and perpetual appeal comes from how well it raises this question, especially regarding...
Christmas Rituals in the Face of Personal Loss
*Special Message, followed by Reflection: Please consider contributing today to our Beginning at Home campaign. See below for a video message from Sofia and me, and Click to help us reach our goal, so we can reach more people with LifeCraft! Thank you!* ~ ~ Those who...
Four Ways Life is Like a Pig Slaughter
*Special Message, followed by Reflection: Dear Reader—We ask you to join our Beginning at Home campaign to match our challenge gift of $100,000. See below for a video message from Sofia and me, and please click to help us reach our goal, so we can reach more people...
Return of a Prodigal: Happiness in the Home
*Special Message, followed by Reflection: Dear Reader—We are thrilled to share that a generous benefactor to LifeCraft has given a gift of $100,000 and encouraged us to match it dollar-for-dollar before December 31 at 11:59 pm as part of our Beginning at Home...
The Challenge of Thanksgiving Day
Trying to make the most of holidays today can be discouraging. But we can still make our Thanksgiving a rich and memorable day; indeed, it can be a day that stands out as truly special. This will require our being intentional and making some hard choices. The reality...
Bringing Forth New and Old, Today
Perhaps the greatest challenge in our home today is how to integrate the new and the old. Essential to grasping this challenge is realizing our unusual situation. Things have been changing at an extraordinary pace, and any way you slice it this makes for a difficult...
Wendell Berry Unveils Our Problem, and a Remedy
Reading Wendell Berry has helped me finally begin to grasp the challenges I face. It’s an astounding experience of, “Ah! That’s why so many things I want seem so far away!” Here are a few snippets from an amazing chapter titled, “The Body and the Earth” in his book...
