Thoughts Along The Way https://tj.durangoherald.com/section/columnists-thoughts-along-the-way/feed/ Latest local news from The Durango Herald. Fri, 14 Aug 2026 20:38:21 -0600 en-us 30 https://tj.durangoherald.com/a-time-to-keep-silence/ Leigh Waggonerdu1-i-syn Words … words … and more words. We are inundated by them. Words written and words spoken. Words meant to convince. Words meant to manipulate. Words that express emotions. Words that speak truth, and words that deceive. Words... Wed, 13 Feb 2019 22:48:34 -0700 81D0FF63-D87A-5DEC-E053-0100007F01BC https://tj.durangoherald.com/a-yearly-reminder-to-live-in-faith-daily/ Leigh Waggonerdu1-i-syn New Year’s. A date on the calendar to mark new beginnings. New diets. New exercise programs. New commitments to those things we know we should be doing but we aren’t. I suspect most of these things are in... Mon, 31 Dec 2018 16:41:47 -0700 7E5979EE-6B7C-45E4-E053-0100007F4FB8 https://tj.durangoherald.com/the-last-gasps-of-patriarchy/ Leigh Waggonerdu1-i-syn Years ago, I sat on the couch in my living room facing an investigator from the State Board of Medical Examiners. He had come all the way from Madison to my house in the woods in northwest Wisconsin... Tue, 16 Oct 2018 14:55:14 -0600 785C4ED8-18EC-632B-E053-0100007F8FA0 https://tj.durangoherald.com/the-only-thing-to-fear/ While the image I carry of myself as a backpacker may no longer align with reality, from experience I know the validity of these words: “We pack for our fears.” More than once I have come out of the mountains... Thu, 20 Sep 2018 16:40:20 -0600 764FE82A-D117-2238-E053-0100007FD1D0 https://tj.durangoherald.com/ignore-nature-and-live-beyond-your-means/ “To everything there is a season …” So says the Biblical writer of Ecclesiastes. Hinduism, Buddhism and other Eastern religions impart a similar wisdom that speaks to the seasonal nature of life. The world view that gave birth to this... Thu, 23 Aug 2018 16:41:36 -0600 741EF04B-4A38-6DF3-E053-0100007F67E1 https://tj.durangoherald.com/freedom-brings-new-challenges-and-responsibilities/ Years ago Marlo Thomas recorded an album entitled, “Free to Be You and Me.” I don’t remember much about the songs on it, but I do remember my kids and I listened to it a lot. Both then and now... Wed, 17 Feb 2016 19:39:50 -0700 64641380-D558-4F36-A12E-42DDA3B2C000 https://tj.durangoherald.com/dolores-rotary-club-assists-schools/ I want to take a moment to thank the Dolores Rotary Club for their generous support of Dolores Schools throughout this school year. The Rotary Club makes a regular practice of inviting our students and teachers to their meetings, in... Tue, 16 Feb 2016 15:35:24 -0700 33FA78CB-BD54-4B3A-8E2A-6885C1C72BCB https://tj.durangoherald.com/in-lifes-mosaic-fragments-of-possibility/ Imagine – scarlet. Bring it to mind in all its richness. Sit with this vivid, intense color, and let it speak to you. Now, fuchsia. And then, magenta. Try azure. And in a while, what about Tangerine or plain old... Tue, 12 Jan 2016 21:22:17 -0700 083B6746-98BB-426C-A31E-895B76510BBB https://tj.durangoherald.com/i-wonder/ For those of you who read this column somewhat regularly you know that I wonder a lot. I wonder about a lot of things, some of them worth writing about, most of them not. I wonder a lot about people... Fri, 20 Nov 2015 00:14:57 -0700 CD54D974-3CA4-415F-A4A5-37601D955961 https://tj.durangoherald.com/losing-your-life-and-finding-the-divine/ Durango is a nice enough town. I suspect it’s favored by those who live there. After all, for them it is home. But I can’t imagine choosing to live there – not after living in Cortez. And maybe not for... Wed, 04 Nov 2015 21:38:23 -0700 AC9327E7-27D9-4017-8591-125C123DB133 https://tj.durangoherald.com/one-family-in-christ-with-values-in-sync/ I’ve been thinking recently about the phrase “family values.” This is a concept that inhabits both the religious and the political spheres. The extent to which those spheres influence the actual content of “family values” and how those values are... Mon, 07 Sep 2015 20:57:34 -0600 EE4A68DC-4E51-49CA-B049-9B8D303D89E3 https://tj.durangoherald.com/publicly-confessed-racism-can-move-souls-to-peace/ Recently I ran across a quote I’d once copied and saved. The quote says that “fear and loss brought to speech lead to energy.” It gives a corollary that “fear and loss not brought to speech lead to violence.” I’ve... Thu, 16 Jul 2015 20:01:34 -0600 91DEEE08-BF08-4F8E-9EE5-8DB9B0EF76AE https://tj.durangoherald.com/systemic-sin-climate-change-and-choice/ Small churches, like other small groups, tend to be homogenous. Members most often look at the world through the same, or similar, lenses. For the most part they believe the same things; they hold the same values; they subscribe to... Thu, 16 Apr 2015 20:52:17 -0600 353688D9-3BCD-4159-802F-816971494870 https://tj.durangoherald.com/rushing-to-a-conclusion-smothers-seeds-of-new-life/ Premature convergence. That was my take-away from a training I recently attended. While it is not a phrase I’d heard before, I recognized it immediately – in myself. Premature convergence is forcing a conclusion/a solution/a resolution/an answer too soon. It... Thu, 19 Mar 2015 19:33:17 -0600 34A282A8-88CE-4FC9-9911-C9046F14F33E https://tj.durangoherald.com/living-in-christ-in-the-community-of-church/ I’ve been asked more than once by members of the congregation I serve to video my sermons and put them on our website. When I decline, they often ask if I wouldn’t just post the texts on the website. Again... Thu, 15 Jan 2015 18:37:15 -0700 275FB24F-23FE-46AF-8458-5C5DE5B74401 https://tj.durangoherald.com/an-invitation-to-engage-our-faith-in-a-conversation/ Prompted by an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor whose blog I read, I have sent an invitation to the people of the Church I serve. The invitation is to join in an Advent conversation. For those unfamiliar with Advent,... Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:38:20 -0700 69FC85D5-74F8-43CD-BEBD-393727CB6320 https://tj.durangoherald.com/celebrating-a-transcendent-union/ All Souls. All Saints. Dia de los Muertos. Some of us Christians have recently celebrated these days of remembrance. As the days grow shorter, their timing is no accident. We are moving into winter. The light is fading. And the... Thu, 06 Nov 2014 23:06:59 -0700 CA4114D4-A421-439D-BF62-374B08BE3271 https://tj.durangoherald.com/living-and-dying-by-gods-good-nature/ Today when I read Ezekiel J. Emanuel’s article in the October edition of “The Atlantic” titled, “Why I Hope to Die at 75,” I knew there were others thinking along the same lines I do. For years I’ve said, “You’ve... Thu, 16 Oct 2014 19:42:44 -0600 0F71E0CA-5503-4447-BDA8-FD1170135F80 https://tj.durangoherald.com/experience-the-fullness-of-this-moment/ By Leigh Waggoner “This moment” is all there is. And the moment that existed when you read that first sentence no longer is. Another moment – “this moment” is all there is. Because we have brains that can store information... Thu, 18 Sep 2014 20:17:39 -0600 465EBF87-626D-48DC-82B6-7798DD217B76 https://tj.durangoherald.com/here-or-out-there/ For so long, most of us raised in Christian churches were taught the notion that heaven and God were out there, and life here had little connection except that you’d better be good or you would not make it to... Thu, 14 Aug 2014 20:13:04 -0600 0F8EEE47-AD14-4759-8B66-CD16EB6E2DE9 https://tj.durangoherald.com/think-on-these-things/ I like to think of myself as a flexible and open person. Maybe I’m just open to new people and new ideas … not so much to new things. If I’d been born at the time when electricity was being... Thu, 17 Jul 2014 22:13:01 -0600 26A66436-6F24-402B-AFB7-F00670A30576