Home of the Darkwater Author
You’ll need to read yesterday’s post, “Storms that Threaten…” in order to get the context for this. I sat on a bench in Nescopeck Community Park, looking out over the Susquehanna River. I had spent the last hour walked around town, remembering all kinds of things. I recognized houses where members of the church I … Continue reading …Waters that Endure
So I spent a lot of the past month traveling around, and a lot of it exploring water. I traveled back to the town of my earliest days, a town that really feels like prehistory to me, since the only memories I have of it are vague and unformed. There, I sat by the West … Continue reading Well of Mercy
I took another nostalgic road trip today. It was kind of like the trip I took a few weeks ago, when I drove to Minersville, the town I lived in for the first four years of my life, and also the town that I experienced in a powerfully spiritual way when I received the vision … Continue reading Pulled Along by the Water
A few days ago, I was at a Zoom meeting with other pastors in my synod. As part of the opening devotion, the meeting facilitator asked the question, "How do you want to be remembered?" Many people gave answers like, "I want to be remembered as someone who loved God and did my best." Or, … Continue reading On being remembered
This is the second chapter of a novella I’ve written. It will be published here one chapter at a time, probably twice a week. Trigger warning: this story is very dark, and may be triggering for those with suicidal ideation. It’s also not the kind of thing you’d expect your pastor to write. So, fair … Continue reading “The Lepers in Your Head” / Chapter Two: The Drive
A few months ago, I had a dream that led me down a very interesting path. I became mildly obsessed with searching online for information on a person I hadn’t seen in well over forty years. Let me explain. I’m going to change some names, for the sake of privacy. In order to explain this … Continue reading Searching for a Long-Lost Friend
For the month of August, I am looking back on the summers of my life, attempting to find some patterns within them to explain why it seems that my depression tends to get worse during the summer. I'm also looking at each summer to find some insight or reflection that can speak to who I … Continue reading The Summer of 2016
I remember being a kindergartener in Mrs. Collins' class. It was 1980-81. I was in the PM kindergarten class in the almost brand-new wing of Drums Elementary School. I loved being in elementary school. I learned so many things. I grew so much. I remember learning our letters in kindergarten, and that there was an … Continue reading Fifty-One
The number eighteen, I'm told, is important in Judaism. The reason for this is because words in Hebrew have numerical values, and the Hebrew word for life, "chai", has a numerical value of eighteen. Looking back on my own life, the number eighteen can easily symbolize "life" for me as well. The year I was eighteen, which spanned my … Continue reading Eighteen
When I was young, I had an eidetic (photographic) memory. This stopped around age 12, but prior to that, I was able to memorize just about anything I read or saw. This is probably why I did quite well at spelling bees, and why my grades in elementary school were always so good. Still to … Continue reading Three
Scholtes-Blog 