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I first saw Liz–not her real name–from the pulpit. I had just begun my sermon when a slender female with shoulder-length hair came in and sat down on the floor with her back against the wall. After worship I did not see her at the exit, where people would always greet me and the rector. …

I was trying–Jack Jones, that’s it–to remember the name of the Texan my mother fell in love with the summer of 1962. We had gone to spend three weeks with my aunt and cousins in Eldorado (pronounced ell-dor-AY-doe), Texas. No fathers. Just women/girls. And a cowboy brought his son and a trailer with a horse …

I am rereading Shogun by James Clavell. For years it was one of my favorite books. But when I began it this time, the memory of Efrain reading Shogun in the remedial English class I taught swept over me. No wonder he read it! The beginning has a samurai beheading a man with one powerful …

It was Easter Sunday, 2021. Jim and I had been with St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church about four months by then. We were finally accustomed to using Zoom, with our congregation on the computer, and our computer on the altar where the camera could catch the service. Andy and Vicki ran Zoom from their home; but …

The prologue was written in September of 2010. The setting is Seminary of the Southwest, an Episcopal seminary in Austin, Texas. I was starting seminary. On the first day of classes, September 2010, I emerged shortly before 8 from my apartment, at the same time as a woman about my age emerged from her door …

I was heading home on Washington Avenue when we northbound cars had to stop for a school bus coming toward us, red lights flashing, letting kids off. Wait. Wait. Wait. Finally the lights stopped and the bus slowly moved past us. But our lane didn’t move. The ten cars behind the bus slowly followed the …

Just now I walked around the block to get active minutes. I put on a hat and UV-reflective overshirt and dark glasses and set out. Before I hit some shade I glanced up at the sky and saw clouds outlined in light, and I remembered April 22, 1994… I was hugging L, a teacher friend …

I got a great tax refund check yesterday. I wanted to deposit it in the credit union in San Antonio, and Jim said, “Download the app. Every bank has an app.” So I did. I signed the check and took a photo of the front. BONK! “The amount is too large to deposit.” “Call the …