Separate, Don’t Isolate

Separate, Don’t Isolate

These days, I’m opening scores of emails from companies announcing their new COVID-19 policies. Grocery stores tell me they are disinfecting carts. Car rental companies proclaim their vehicles are safe to rent and schools promise to operate online.

They are all good polices, but the pandemic plan I prefer to follow is “Let’s Thrive, Not Just Survive.”

Are you really saying thank you?

Are you really saying thank you?

It was an icy morning when I trudged the uphill sidewalk that skirts the University of Nevada campus. Behind me, I heard the huffing of a fellow student approaching on his bicycle and I moved to my right to yield for faster traffic.

However, I unwittingly detoured the bicyclist already approaching my right and sent him onto a muddy knoll. He managed to stay upright as he passed me. Then, with his tires spitting mud and his voice dripping sarcasm, he yelled, “Thank you SO much!”

Say Little; Do Much

Say Little; Do Much

I am a professionally employed chaplain. I’m schooled, ordained and certified. I’ve even been to war.

But I recently attended three funerals that reminded me how I can feel as helpless as anyone when trying to comfort a heartbroken friend.

Reverence for Rituals

Reverence for Rituals

Reverence for Rituals Misspelling redefines spiritual care By Norris Burkes February 2020 In 2002, I was so thrilled to begin work as a chaplain for Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento that I failed to notice the typo on my ID badge. It took more than a year, but a...
Lessons From Las Vegas

Lessons From Las Vegas

I spend a lot of time in Sin City.

I know Las Vegas isn’t the place where you’d think a chaplain should visit, but business and family often send me there.

Joe Feld Remember Pearl Harbor

Joe Feld Remember Pearl Harbor

Remembering Pearl Harbor Navy Veteran shares story of attack, rescue, recovery By Norris Burkes December 2019 As a chaplain at Hospice of the Foothills in Grass Valley, I’m privileged to visit local veterans under the “We Honor Vet” program. During these Veteran Day...