Walks with Barry - Profoundly Simple: A Walk Reframed

A few times this week different groups at my church painted pumpkins as an activity for classes. Everyone likes to paint a pumpkin, don’t they? The finished products are all interesting. Some are funny, some are serious. Some are mysterious. This one caught my attention immediately. If you know me, you already see why this grabbed me. If you don’t know me, you now could recognize me if we passed in a crowded airport terminal. This pumpkin looks just like me. Grey hair. Closely cropped white beard. Small eye glasses. Yes, it is definitely me. It makes me laugh every time I see the pumpkin version of myself. I can look back on the childhood version of me and remember the television shows I liked, the things I liked to do, my friends with whom I played at recess and after school. I can look back on the teenage version of me and remember the excitement of getting my driver’s license and the anxious need to fit in and be popular. I can look back on my young adult self and feel that need to ...

  As I walked along through the neighborhood, I came across this really, really ugly duck. At first I thought it was part of just one more Halloween display. But then it started walking away, and I realized that this was no inflatable yard decoration. This was just what it appeared to be; an ugly duck. My mind immediately took me back to the classic fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. You know the story, I hope. I loved it as a child. The ugly little duckling does not look like the others in the group. They do not fit in. They feel awkward and alone. Little did they know that as time went by, this ugly duckling would grow into a beautiful, magnificent swan. That story has endured since 1843 because it is a well-written tale. It has been adapted and retold in countless ways across the years. But the real reason it endures is that it speaks to that part in us that feels ugly and awkward. It speaks to that part in us that feels we do not fit in, that we aren’t like everyone else. S...

One of my neighbors have this wonderfully cozy setting for their skeleton couple to enjoy. These two get up and stretch their legs now and then, returning to sit in different positions. I think all who pass by, either walking or driving, have to stop and smile. It fascinates me how adding a few simple things like the table with a pot of flowers between the chairs and the hat and scarf can make these two skeletons feel like a family. Well done, friends! When we think about it, it is the simple things that make all of us feel like family, regardless of what shape that family may take. Both listening and being heard. Holding hands and feeling an anxious heart calmed. Laughing until it hurts over something only the two of you find funny. Knowing that, regardless of anything else, there is someone, or someones, who love us and long to be near. The ability of these simple things to create a powerful bond transcends all barriers of age, distance and social status. And, if my impression of the...

Seems to be a lot of spiders out for Halloween this year. They are in yards, on roofs and climbing about in all manner of webs. They seem to come in two sizes: big and bigger. Some are lit at night. Others remain as black as can possibly be. Spiders and spider webs are a staple of haunted houses and all things Halloween. Almost 20 years ago, I was appointed to a church that had an annual Halloween tradition named the “Haunted Hayride”. On the back acreage of the property was a wooded area with a pond. It was dark and removed from the parking lots and lighting around the facility. It was perfect for such an adventure. My first year as pastor, I was asked if I could drive a tractor. “Of course!” was my immediate, though not completely honest, reply. The tractor would pull the hay-filled wagon through various scenes of horror as it wound its way through the trees. Webs and spiders greeted you at the entrance of the trip. Before I drove my first group through, I managed to get the tractor ...

Today’s walk turned out to be all about snakes. It seems that the cold air caused a couple of snakes to follow their instincts to warmth, only this time it was the warm water of the swimming pool. Unfortunately, therein they might their demise. Then, a few miles into my walk, I came upon this HUGE snake. I sensed a theme; a somewhat disturbing theme, but a theme. Snakes . I grew up in a house that was surrounded by trees and that backed up to miles of woods. There were snakes everywhere. In the trees. In the yard. On the porch. In the attic. There was one snake that I knew I could find everyday at a certain time hanging out on the cool metal of the engine of my go cart. I never thought too much about snakes. They never really bothered me. Snakes just “were”. When I was a boy I loved to read about the snakes in Kipling’s Jungle Biok and Rikki Tikki Tavi. I would sit for hours on the floor with the “S” volume of our World Book Encyclopedia and peruse the color photos of the different sn...

First dragons, now ghosts. On my walk this morning I was confronted with the two extremes of ghosts. One is angry and some what frightening. One is a friendly ghost and very welcoming. I suppose that in the ghost world, like our own, it takes all kinds. Some neighborhood ghosts swing in the wind as they hang from the trees. Some are inflated by fans, so you can sometimes catch them sleeping in a heap on the ground. Others, like these, seem to always be in business, doing whatever it is ghosts do. Some are small and some, like this angry one, tower above all who might pass their way. Those of us in this world often speak of the past in terms of our “ghosts”. We all have things that haunt us to some degree. Painful experiences. Poor decisions. Loss. Grief. William Faulkner writes, “The past is never dead. It isn’t even past.” Things have a tendency to stick with us. Our experiences, both good and bad, go into making us who we are. Some of those ghosts are like the one on the left. Others...

So far, this is my favorite of all the new chalk art around the neighborhood. It was still very dark this morning, and I could barely make out the designs and words. But this one captured my attention, even in the dim morning light. I was touched by the strong statement made by these neighbors. “Hate has no Home here”. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if every house made such a commitment? So simple and yet so profound. No hate between those who live within the walls of this house. No hate for neighbors, no matter their differences. No hate for those who believe differently or vote differently or speak differently. No hate. Period. In reality, we make that decision every day of our lives. Such a choice is not a one time thing. It is a conscious discipline of both mind and heart, every day. The scripture speaks, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.” I can’t change the whole world, but I can change how I relate to those who cross m...