Sunday Reflections: BlueGreen Meditations from St. John's, Cold Spring Harbor

Last year, we rebuilt the pond's edge. The bluegill used to nest there. I worried we had closed that bottom to them for good. This week I found out we had not. A reflection on the ground that holds us, even when we can't see it.

Behind the office, the serviceberry trees are ripening. What happens next is one of the most extraordinary things we witness all year. I shouldn't tell you. But I must.

A double-crested cormorant crash-landed in the Pachysandra outside St. John's Church this week. A rector, a Boy Scout, barbecue gloves, and lab goggles were not enough. This is a Pentecost story about the one who comes alongside — and what it looks l... more

A mid-week postcard from the rectory: on pinching back peony buds, on a New Hampshire congregation that knows how to live in summer, and on the difference between fewer flowers and more flower.

The iris didn't know it crossed state lines. It only knew there was ground here, and light, and that was sufficient. A reflection for the Sunday after Ascension — on division, multiplication, and how good news travels.17

An oriole returns to the same pine tree. An eel climbs rock to reach the water it was born for. A tern crosses seventy thousand miles to the same spot. This week: what the creatures call fidelity, and what we can learn from keeping our own appointmen... more

We planted three hundred tulips last fall. The deer took most of them. The ten that survived are showing off. A reflection on guardrails, the long middle of the school year, and what abundance looks like when nobody is keeping score.

A Canada goose has claimed the path between the rectory and the church — and he is not moving. A reflection on Good Shepherd Sunday, Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese," and what it means to hold your ground when it matters.

Listen to Mary Oliver read Wild G... more