Kristin Berkey-Abbott
Kristin Berkey-Abbott
A poet, a scholar, a teacher, a wanna-be mystic--always wrestling with the temptation to run away to join an intentional community--but would it be contemplative? social justice oriented? creative? in the mountains? in the inner city?--may as well stay planted and wrestle with these tensions and contradictions here, at the edge of America.
September 2026
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All posts (66)
It's that time again, when I feel various projects piling up; Andrew Marvell said it so much more eloquently, "But at my back I always hear / Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near." Of course, the speaker is trying to woo a woman--or maybe just get sex. I am trying to grade papers and write poems and send work out for...
Yesterday afternoon, I went to downtown Spartanburg, to the business office of Hub City publishers, a group which also runs the charming, downtown bookstore. We had the last meeting with a student who is doing a Capstone project. We agreed that it's been a success.It was neat to be in the office space of a small...
We have been in a stretch of perfect autumnal weather: chilly nights, clear days, before the time change so we still have plenty of time to enjoy this perfect October time. As I drove down the Cumberland Highway on Saturday, I was struck by how many small towns had piled pumpkins around the "Welcome to ______ "...
Yesterday was a fairly easy travel day, a pleasant surprise. I decided to go the way my phone directed me, which took me across I 40, the 2 lane part that's under construction. It's much easier early in the morning going from east to west. But I focused on breathing and staying focused on the patch of pavement ahead...
Soon I will put the last of my stuff in the car. Sunrise comes later this much further north (at 7:57), so I'm not going to leave until 6:30 or 7. Gone are the days when I would leave at 4 a.m.; driving that many hours in the dark is just too tiring. Is this a sign of getting older or just a sign of being more...
Last night over dinner, my TEEM cohort exchanged notes over how tired we are. This onground intensive is, indeed, intense. We eat breakfast at the hotel, head over to the Synod office meeting space, and we're meeting from 8 until 4 or 5, depending on how long we took for lunch. Lunch is brought in, and we try to be...
Yesterday was the first day of the onground intensive for the TEEM program. We'll spend the first two days of the week learning about Lutheran Liturgy, then a Wednesday workshop on Lutheran polity, and we'll finish with a class on Old Testament prophets. We begin each day with worship/devotion time at 8, and we go...
Today is the 226th anniversary of Oktoberfest, a holiday which began as a city-wide celebration of the marriage of a royal couple. Raise a glass! I wish I liked beer more.In an interesting juxtaposition of holidays, today is also the real Columbus Day and also the federal holiday. Oktoberfest and Christopher...
I am sitting at a desk in the Drury Hotel in Carmel, Indiana, on the northern edge of Indianapolis. I'm here for an onground intensive for the TEEM program, my current route to ordination. If you've been following along all week, you know that I'm here a day early.It's a long trip, which I make by car. I like being...
Last June, when I left Indiana after the first TEEM onground intensive that I attended, I thought ahead to our next gathering in October, where I anticipated autumnal shifts with still-warm days.I did not anticipate a hurricane affecting the weather that far inland. But here we are. I've changed travel plans, and...
I am hurricane watching, and you might ask why. I will always keep a wary eye on any Gulf or Atlantic hurricanes--even before Hurricane Helene came to my neighborhood, I was this way. This week-end, I'm headed to Indianapolis, and Hurricane Isaias is too. I was going to drive on Sunday, but since the hotel could add...
On Sunday, I went through my old files looking for a St. Francis poem that I thought I had written--but I was thinking of an Ash Wednesday poem. While searching, I found an old manuscript of Jesus in the world poems, many of which I had forgotten writing. Because my time is short this morning, I'll post one of them...
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