James Derkits

One of the gifts of working at a church with school, is that I get to learn from the children!  When I see them being creative, imagining, and playing, it reminds me that I too am created to be creative, imagine, and play.  In the adult world, we can forget that because of the many real demands on our time; but creativity is key to living a healthy life. TS Elliot wrote, "The Lord who created must wish us to create." Our children know that in their hearts and remind us daily.  

I finally remembered to count the steps it takes to walk from the front door of my house to the back door of my office: 64 steps. It isn't even far enough to consider my walk to work exercise. I was joking with someone about my 64 step commute, and then started to wonder if it could even be considered a commute. The common American use of the word commute comes from the changing of a daily train fee to a single annual train fee. That would earn the buyer a "commuter pass." Think "mutate." It is about changing from one to the other. It once referred to the change of a type of ticket, but in present common usage, it has come to mean a change in location from home to work, work to home. I was singing the word along with the Roches' " The Train " long before I understood what a commute was. The Roches were probably reflecting on a train commute into NYC. A very different commute than what I'm experiencing each morning and evening. When I dro...

Cardboard is really an amazing thing. Forgive as I reveal my ignorance here, but it seems that it is just three pieces of thick paper, with the center piece corrugated and clued in between the other two. Make some simple origami folds with overlapping lids, and suddenly you have the ability to contain everything you own. Once it is contained, you can put it in a bigger container on a truck and haul it anywhere. For a time, everything is hidden. When we went to the moving company to pick up "boxes," they instead gave us what they call "cartons." I stand corrected. We got way too many wardrobe cartons, and got pretty creative with how we filled those. We supplemented with empty copy paper cartons and liquor cartons. We got here, with lots of help.  We did a half pack for this move to Port Aransas. We asked the professionals to pack our more breakable items (crystal, tv, that ceramic pot I made in high school, etc.), and we packed clothes, books, tools, etc. We ...