Staff Blog
Faith in Vermont: The Summer of Patience
The summer of 2016 may hereafter be referred to by our family as: “The Summer of Patience.”
Ah, patience! Defined as, “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset,”...
Poem by Gary Margolis: Haircut
Haircut
I don’t know what possesses me
to ask the order of your family
love. Children, dog, your loving
husband? Save that picture
in its frame that says I love my dog.
His perked-up ears. His over-biting
jaw....
Faith in Vermont: Marching on Memorial Day
“Can we march in the Memorial Day parade again this year?”
Out of nowhere, one of my daughters popped this question during breakfast on a morning in mid-April. Memorial Day was over a month away. We were all the way across the...
Faith in Vermont, California Sabbatical: Some Lessons of Sabbatical
I was not exactly looking forward to our family’s sabbatical in Berkeley, California. Our five-month sojourn was a year-and-a-half in the planning, so my mind had plenty of time to run through every nightmarish scenario imaginable....
Poem: On the lift
On the Lift
There’s not a better place
on earth than sitting here
with Bill McKibben
in County Tire’s waiting room.
Our cars hoisted on two
lifts. Two men behind
the glass, swapping out
our sets of...
Faith in Vermont, California Sabbatical: Goodbye to Berkeley
As we prepare to leave Berkeley, California and return home to Vermont, here are some Berkeley stories from the past five months of our family’s sabbatical:
It’s late January. We are a few weeks into our homeschool...
Poem: It's winter again
It’s Winter Again
Gratitude to you, young woman,
sliding your squeegee across the glass,
wiping its blade dry again.
Praise for the care you’re taking
applying yourself side to side.
Inside the circle, the track...
Faith in Vermont, California Sabbatical: They Paved Paradise
It’s late afternoon, and I’m looking east through the big picture windows of my favorite café in Berkeley, California. I’m used to seeing the Green Mountains when I look east, but today I see the Berkeley Hills.
There...
Faith in Vermont, California Sabbatical: Where The Heart Is?
When friends and family from Vermont ask how we’re doing during our five-month sabbatical in Berkeley, California, I usually answer, “It’s been a good experience. But it’s not home.”
The funny thing is, it was...
Faith in Vermont, California Sabbatical: The Surprising Joy of Homeschooling
Husband: I was thinking we could go to Berkeley for the second half of my sabbatical. We have family and friends there, and I could do research in my old department at UC Berkeley.
Me: Sure, that makes sense.
Husband: And we’d enroll...