Blog Archives | Page 18 of 40

On the Road Again

July 2018

I travel to other countries about four times a year, usually at the invitation of an international publisher of my books. This year, for example, I’ve flown to Japan, Brazil, and Argentina, and have trips planned to Ireland and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Belarus, and Ukraine). The trips are exhausting and expensive, and on return I happily settle back into the solitary writing life. “Why do you keep traveling?” my friends ask. “You live in the beautiful state of Colorado. Why ...

A Father Is Born

June 2018

I have long looked to Frederick Buechner, who turns 92 next month, as a mentor. I included him in Soul Survivor as one of the key people who helped form my faith. For those of us who attempt writing, Buechner shows by example how to communicate faith most effectively. I have many shelves loaded with books written by Christians. Most of them, I regret to say, would hold little appeal to anyone not already committed to the same faith. Christians ...

Unexpected Guest

April 2018

Sitting on the platform as a visiting speaker, I feel as if I have entered a time warp from the late 1950s. I look out on a church sanctuary packed with people dressed in their Sunday finest. These days, pastors where I live in Colorado tend to wear jeans and untucked shirts; here, in a 125-year-old church in a wealthy Philadelphia suburb, they are wearing robes over tailored suits. In advance of my visit the senior pastor sent me a ...

Sounds of Silence in Japan

March 2018

Different sounds accompany great disasters. An earthquake begins with the rumble of heaving earth and the crack of fissured faults, followed by the cacophony of books falling off shelves, dishes clattering to the floor, roofs collapsing, and houses sliding off their foundations. A tsunami’s whoosh is quieter, but far more deadly: the ocean itself rises up to wash away automobiles, trains, forests, and entire towns. Radiation from a nuclear meltdown makes no sound at all, yet somehow the silence amplifies ...

The Persistence of Peggy

February 2018

Winter Olympics events get major coverage in Colorado, for my state sends more athletes to the games than any other. I left for Japan halfway through this year’s events, which means I missed many thrills of victory and agonies of defeat. Over here, however, Japan’s victorious male figure skaters made the front page of every newspaper in the country. Watching the figure skating finals, with an excited Japanese commentator in the background, took me back to a conversation with a ...

On the Road Again

A Father Is Born

Unexpected Guest

Sounds of Silence in Japan

The Persistence of Peggy

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