Featured image: Good old St Ives and the "island" home to St Nicholas Chapel, where some churches gather for Easter sunrise. We gathered there in 2010, with Jerry and Becky Miller who were then hosts at the then London Mennonite Centre. We walked to the chapel in the dark, shivering mightily in the cold, and …
Author: John Bender
Hi, my name is John Bender, retired and loving it. I'm writing to help interested people cross bridges to and from the past. Stories from the past can shed light on life in the present and illuminate the future. We've got a lot of living to do. Let's do it!
Easter ahead: Make room for mystery
Featured image: Daffodil fields where the bulbs will eventually be harvested. Photo taken from a double-decker bus, bound for Penzance. Cogitation 12 Saturday 24 March 2018 Mystery is an event you can't explain. It's anything you see that, well, remains inexplicable. For me, mystery is present in both the material and spiritual realms--even if …
Go green!
Cogitation 11 Saturday 17 March 2018 St Patrick's Day reigns green today with parades, parties and religious festivals, both in Ireland and across the Irish diaspora. Use of the Irish Gaelic language is one marker of the celebration. This religious and civic holiday marks the day Ireland's patron saint died, some say in 460, …
Rain with bright spells
Featured image: The raindrop dabbled sign says 40 minutes to Porthleven; double that in mud. Cogitation 10 Saturday 10 March 2018 "Isn't it wonderful!" exclaimed the raingear clad woman, her dog on a lead, of the rain and sleet we encountered on the walk to lunch last Sunday. Our party of four going to the …
‘Walk like a penguin,’ BBC presenters advised
Featured image: Carbis Water, a stream in the valley, a five minute walk from our flat, flanked by the rarest of winter dress. Cogitation 9 / Saturday 3 March 2018 From green fields and early blooms to a spot-on Met Office forecast of country-wide heavy snows, ice and wind-driven blizzards--we've experienced it even in …
Continue reading ‘Walk like a penguin,’ BBC presenters advised
First (brilliant) days in Cornwall
Featured image: Ancient cross on Church Lane, between Carbis Bay and Lelant. Cogitation 8 Saturday 24 February 2018 It was a pleasant surprise to find our Christmas letter published in the New Contact magazine of St Anta and All Saints Church, Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK. We wrote: "For seven winter/spring seasons we've hopped across …
Facets of Cornwall’s call
Featured image: The ubiquitous primrose, growing in cultivated flower beds or wild in drystone walls. Cogitation 7.2018 Saturday 17 February Look right. Clear? Cross to the refuge in the middle of the road. Look left. Proceed when clear. The absolute importance of first looking right, then left to cross a street in the UK …
Minding, what else, the weather
Featured image: Here's where geraniums will bloom. Cogitation 6.132 Saturday 10 February 2018 The buzz on Friday was mostly about the weather. On Saturday snowplows were buzzing all about town. This morning we attended a memorial service for Brent Eash (1959-2018) at church. It was such a fitting time of worship and fellowship for …
In the moment
Featured image: Marty poses with Simon Gingerich at Simon's 95th birthday open house at Greencroft Goshen Continuing Care Living Community. Cogitation 5:131 Saturday 3 February 2018 Ever been between times? Such as in that space between an old and a new normal? The never, never land of time almost standing still? A moment that's …
As I was going to . . .
Featured image: Wildlife preening in Ox Bow Park. Cogitation 4.130 Saturday 27 January 2018 Reader Mary K. Mishler responded to a photo of St Ives in last week's post: "I'm reminded of my childhood riddle, 'AS I WAS GOING TO ST IVES,'" she wrote. Not everyone we know has heard that nursery rhyme. Here …
It's About Now 