Tag Archives: personal-reflection

Bad Moon Rising and the 8-Track Sounds of Childhood

I can still conjure it—the family’s tobacco-brown Pontiac Bonneville, the smell of leather warm from the mid-day sun, dashboard gleaming with chrome, at that age when I was still small enough to straddle the transmission hump. I felt part of the whole ride—the road ahead, the hum of the engine mingling with the faint whisperContinueContinue reading “Bad Moon Rising and the 8-Track Sounds of Childhood”

J. R. R. Tolkien Remembered: When the Last Ship Departed the Grey Havens

On September 2, 1973, J. R. R. Tolkien died in Bournemouth (a seaside town on the southern coast of England) at the age of eighty-one. The New York Times remembered him the next day as a “linguist, scholar and author of The Lord of the Rings,” a man who cast “a spell over tens of thousands of AmericansContinueContinue reading “J. R. R. Tolkien Remembered: When the Last Ship Departed the Grey Havens”

An Ordinary Love, Lifted into Song

Back in the 1980s, chasing U2’s spark led me to Clannad, whose music wove Ireland’s ancient roots into something fresh. Their duet with Bono, “In a Lifetime,” caught me in a spell, Moya Brennan’s voice like a breeze carrying secrets from another world. Without knowing a word of Irish Gaelic, I was enchanted, drawn intoContinueContinue reading “An Ordinary Love, Lifted into Song”

Remembering Apollo 11: Tranquility Base to Wonder

Editor’s note: This reflection comes a little late, but Apollo 11’s wonder is timeless. Fifty-six years ago last month, three men set out to do what humanity had only dreamed of. They flew a quarter of a million miles into the dark, landed on the Moon, and came safely home. In those eight days, theyContinueContinue reading “Remembering Apollo 11: Tranquility Base to Wonder”

A Song That Surprised Me

I first heard “I Know A Name” at home while running through the worship setlist for an upcoming Sunday service. Up until then I mostly stuck to the old hymns — with the occasional early-2000s worship anthem thrown in. But recently, some newer songs have started sticking with me… This song, a collaboration between ElevationContinueContinue reading “A Song That Surprised Me”