Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

The following was written as a homework assignment in my Practical Ministry course, with an eye towards preaching someday in a wedding service.

This year I celebrated my Silver Wedding Anniversary. Marie and I were married in a big Episcopal Church in 1984, only 3 years after the fairytale wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana captivated the English-speaking world.

It was also only 5 years after the publication of a new Book of Common Prayer for the Episcopal Church in America. As lo… Continue

I teased that there was more to say about my last days as a bachelor, and here it is.

My surgery was six weeks and 19 hours before my wedding. It was a surprise for everybody, which makes sense: One doesn't really PLAN for emergency cancer surgery. I called in "sick" Friday morning, the day of my surgery, and told the receptionist I was in the hospital. She asked if it was serious. What do you say to that?

Marie and I recuperated together, a matched pair of singletons (since her ovary had been… Continue

It's now been more than 5 months since my last blog entry, and while I haven't posted anything about the year I got engaged and married, I have been thinking about that quarter century (that phrase makes me feel veryold. A lot of things have been happening in those 5 months, and I will share some of those. But for now I want to tell you about the first time I avoided death by disease.

Just to recap, my girlfriend and I got engaged on Tax Day, 1984. We had been friends for a year, and "ha… Continue

This year is a special year for me. In terms of the greatest stresses in one's life, I hit the jackpot. I had started a new job in 1983, the first well-paying position of my life (3 years after college), so it was the first full year of my first good job. I got engaged to my best friend and musical partner Marie Gustafson (now my wife). I moved into her house with my 2 cats, 2 dozen instruments and 3 computers. I quit (and unquit) smoking. I re-established a relationship with my mother. I renewe… Continue

Answering the Call #11: My Top 10 Musical Influences

(podcast version available at ATC011pc)

Recently I was “tagged” in Facebook by a church friend to detail “My Top 10 Musical Influences” and, of course, to “tag” 9 others to spread the fun. I enjoyed being able to “tag” the musician listed in #1. Bernie Horn was a year older than me in high school. In fact, I think he’s still a year older. But he was also a year ahead of me. When my family moved to a… Continue