Posts by Martha Brunell

1120 of 217 items

Web Notes When We Are Scattered – December 3, 2020

by Martha Brunell

Connected While Apart What About Super-spreader? more random letters than words Dear Mayfield, For the first time ever, the folks who put out the Oxford English Dictionary have not chosen a word for the year.  There is a spiritual practice that I’ve participated in from time to time.  It involves being still and trying to […]

Web Notes When We Are Scattered – December 1, 2020

by Martha Brunell

Connected While Apart A Joyful Scent a holiday garland Dear Mayfield, Just after dark the night before Thanksgiving, I was making my way down the block and I was overcome by one of my most favorite smells.  Even through a mask securely held to my face, I could smell the sharp seasonal fragrance of balsam.  […]

Web Notes When We Are Scattered – November 26, 2020

by Martha Brunell

Connected While Apart Advent/Christmas 2020 — “Awake to Invitation” Awake to Invitation:  Advent/Christmas 2020 So many invitations we have offered or received this year have ended up in the pile of the postponed or the cancelled.  Even if invitations are still out there, we hesitate to note them in our calendars because the weeks of […]

Web Notes When We Are Scattered – November 24, 2020

by Martha Brunell

Connected While Apart Different Kinds of Pilgrims The Thanksgiving altar at Mayfield, November 2018. Dear Mayfield, In her 1983 children’s book Molly’s Pilgrim, author Barbara Cohen wrote this simple description:  “A Pilgrim is someone who came here from the other side to find freedom.”  At about the same time a Thanksgiving Litany was included in […]

Web Notes When We Are Scattered – November 21, 2020

by Martha Brunell

Connected While Apart Root for Others Steel Roots at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Chicago, IL Dear Mayfield, There is a company called Your True Nature.  For quite a while now they have been putting out products including magnets, tee shirts, greeting cards, book marks, and art prints, to name a few.  Their items most often […]

Web Notes When We Are Scattered – November 19, 2020

by Martha Brunell

Connected While Apart Not Always Easy Now Dear Mayfield, For a  number of years, on the Melrose side of Nettelhorst School, the south side of the building, there has been a large mural with this sentiment “better together.”  I passed by it in the dark last night on my way to drop off something at […]

Web Notes When We Are Scattered – November 13, 2020

by Martha Brunell

Connected While Apart Inspiration in Well and Woe Inspiration is always a surprising visitor.  (John O’Donohue) Dear Mayfield, Our English word “inspiration” can be traced back to the Latin inspirare which means “to blow into or breathe upon.”  I have been breathing with a parade of inspiring moments, encounters, or discoveries this week.  They form […]