The Hammer Times

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  • Ziggy’s Corner: Activated by Affection

    Ziggy’s border collie genetics mean she dozes most of the day within a few feet of me. (I’m easy to keep track of, doing a desk job in a small apartment.) She seems content on her double-stacked bed and will lie there all day, waiting. When friends visit or when I get on the floor Read more

  • Loss

    I’m in a low energy chapter. My oil pan of liveliness is leaking badly, leaving drip marks of sighs beneath me. The sighs are exhales of sorrow. Four friends, each of whom I’d known for decades, have died since Christmas: Pat, Rosemary, Michelle and Gary. ONE: One look at Pat’s smile and twinkling eyes and Read more

  • Here’s a Thought: Don’t Wear Colors You Haven’t Earned

    I think we should stop asking professional teams to play dress up – – to don a hat or special jersey in support of a cause. Athletes and coaches should wear the uniform they’ve earned, not ones they haven’t. In November, the month in which Veterans’ Day falls, the NFL swaddles its teams in camouflage Read more

  • Coming to the Manger – A Gay Advent in Four Reflections: Peace

    A Peace That Transcends The WORLD Queer folk: Not everyone will accept you when you come out. Some, including family, might never accept you. They might reject and expel you. As stark and gut-wrenching as that reality is, when you’re ready, come out anyway. Others will love you, make space for you, and let you Read more

  • On Hospitality

    Come in! Come in! Welcome to our home! All is ready. We have swept away the old, anticipating the new, anticipating you. We have even dressed up a little (or a lot!) to celebrate the occasion of you. We have prepared special foods, delectable treats. The wine is poured, the table is set. Come. Welcome Read more

  • Coming to the Manger – A Gay Advent in Four Reflections: Joy

    Joy There was a moment at my third Pride parade when I was so overcome with joy that my knees buckled. This was a stark contrast to my first two parades, which were uncomfortably awkward. My first time, in Seattle, I slunk around, closeted and alone. I’m still not sure what I was doing there, Read more

  • Coming to the Manger – A Gay Advent in Four Reflections: Love

    LOVE Conditional love can take all the starch out of a person. It dissolves the very skeleton that frames you, holds you upright, and structures your being. It leaves you slumping, a formless puddle of who you were meant to be, with all the pieces there but no scaffold on which to build a life. Read more

  • Coming to the Manger – A Gay Advent in Four Reflections: Hope

    HOPE: A Cornerstone of Being Gay Hope is a cornerstone of being gay. It is the hope to break through the dry, parched soil of conformity and expectations, to be brave enough to push past our own protective exteriors and the layers of society’s stiff mud. We hope coming out will allow honesty to blossom Read more

  • Big Sister

    I have a big sister. I adore her. She loves me. She is emphatic that God loves me. Even more outrageously, she tells me that God adores me. Some days I am able to believe it. And the days I do believe, I believe because she said it’s true. Because she is faithful and honest Read more

  • Plumping Prayer

    Be Still and Know that I Am God. (Psalm 46:10) Prayer position, classically taught, is one of stillness and drawing oneself inward. We ready ourselves by shutting out the world around us so we might enter the gentling, sacred world within. We seek a quiet place, so that what we hear will not distract us. Read more