John’s Beloved Grandparents, Sally and Warren (with Anna) in NY ICE CREAM WITH SALLY I asked you, Sally, as ice cream dripped from the spoon,If it tasted good.“Are you kidding?” you said. “This stuff is the best.”I lifted the spoon to your mouth. A vanilla tear fell on your shirt.But you didn’t see. A faint [...]

I can’t resist putting up another Bloom quote. This one is nourishing: “The day when God is absent, when He is silent–that is the beginning of prayer. Not when we have a lot to say, but when we say to God, ‘I can’t live without you. Why are you so cruel, so silent?’ This knowledge [...]

In Beginning to Pray, Met. Anthony Bloom gave this advice to a young person who had been praying for hours and hours at a time but felt that he couldn’t bear to keep it up any longer: “There are moments when you can tell God ‘I simply must have a rest. I have no strength [...]

So, I’m up at 6 on Sunday morning, and have been up for the past two hours because some kindly neighbor decided to set off fireworks at 4. When I heard the explosions I was in a deep sleep and imagined that somebody was trying to break in with dynamite. So now I’m on the [...]

The proofs for my book have arrived. I’ve been tiptoeing around them for several days now. I can’t seem to muster the courage to look at them closely. When I signed for the Fed Ex package it was a whole different story. I was giddy. I couldn’t stop touching the pages. They looked so much [...]