Monthly Archives: April 2016

Wednesday, April 27  –  Mary Oliver and Pine Ridge, SD A friend sent me a Mary Oliver writing, new to me.  It doesn’t quite read like a poem.  More like two small essays connected.  They remind me of a saying-set … Continue reading →

Monday,  April 25   Rabindranath Tagore # 2   {Gitanjali} “When Thou commandest me to sing  .  .  .  . Finals week, fatigue, worries and self-doubt.  Finals week, courage, the joy of intellectual engagement.   Final exams reminded me of … Continue reading →

Wednesday  April 20 I’m traveling the rest of this week, to Denver for a Board of Trustees meeting at Regis University.   It makes a good opportunity for re-play two late April posts from last year, both guest edited.  Today … Continue reading →

Monday, April 18   —  leaves, & flowers waking up Must be spring.  I checked Weather.com’s allergy tracker this morning, a respiratory seasonal ritual for me and for many others.  Worth it, though,  Today’s dawn might be the seventh glorious morning … Continue reading →

Friday, April 15 “These things are a tiny taste of the bigness of the world. They were there before you looked; they will be there after you go. None of it depends on you.” I came across this short essay … Continue reading →

Wednesday April 13  —   “We are reconciled, I think,  .  .  .  .  To too much.”   Mary Oliver I posted this piece from Crain’s last year, April 29.  It entrances me, imagining c. 10 million walleye migrating each … Continue reading →

Monday, April 11 — “begin to pray from where you are”    The lives of Catherine McAuley, RSM and Ignatius Loyola, SJ, Detroit Mercy’s two foundational spirits, offer similar advice about beginnings:  try to notice where I am and begin … Continue reading →

Friday,  April 8  —>  “To what purpose, April, do you return again?” Several weeks back The New York Times ran a piece on the 1924 Democratic National Convention.  When teaching US history, I found it helpful to single out 1924 … Continue reading →

Wednesday, I was meeting with some people yesterday and the topic of relentless on-campus trash came up;  same stories — throw-aways from MacDonalds, and soon enough, Burger King,  cigarette butts, plastic grocery bags caught in spring tree branches.  Like . … Continue reading →

Monday, April  4 “ . . .  and gone my way  .  .  .  .  .  and forgotten it” Another good friend, Springs Steele, emailed this poem to me early today.  I had not been familiar with R. S. Thomas. … Continue reading →