James Derkits

Two separate times since Easter I have sat still. Once on the banks of a river, just watching the river slide past, and occasional turtles and fish stirring the calmer waters. Once on the beach as Eli jumped wave after wave after wave. Stopping those two times made me realize how much I need to be still. A different sort of thinking takes place there. Un-multi-task thinking. No new stories to scroll up through. Just sitting, allowing my soul to catch up with my body. Today I read this in the book Through the Year with Thomas Merton. He wrote it a long time before the words multitasking and facebook were popular. "The question arises: is modern man--confused and exhausted by a multitude of words, opinions, doctrines, and slogans--psychologically capable of the clarity and confidence necessary for valid prayer? Is he not so frustrated and deafened by conflicting propagandas that he has lost his capacity for deep and simple trust?" (from Thomas Merton's Life and...

Plastic bag in front of Trinity by the Sea On a recent trip to Austin, I was surprised and delighted not to be handed a plastic bag when I checked out of a grocery store. I wasn't buying much, so I was able to carry out my things without remembering to bring in my reusable bags. For some time now, I've gotten in the habit of turning down plastic bags in convenience stores when they try to put my humble bag of sunflower seeds, lonely, in another bag. The plastic grocery bag has become like a handshake at the end of the deal: it seems to make the shopping experience complete. It is such an ingrained habit, that the person behind the cash register sometimes gets a suspicious look when I ask for no bag, as if thinking, "This yahoo is threatening our way of life!" I think about habits a lot, as a Christian of the Episcopal persuasion. Our practices and our experiences in everyday life shape the way we understand our relationship with God, with others, and with ours...

Notice the Sister 7 T-Shirt? I can remember standing outside a 21+ club in Houston when I was 19, trying to hear a few lines float out the door from Patrice Pike’s band at the time Sister 7. I was there with the friend who originally let me listen to the live album “Free Love, Nickel Beer.” Patrice was kind enough to stop by and say hello to us after the show. By that time I was already enthralled by the music and lyrics, and noticed the deep spirituality of the music as much as I appreciated her sincerity and passion when she performed. By the time I started listening to her music, I already sensed a call to the priesthood, so was reflecting on some of the themes I discovered in songs like “Forgiven” of the self titled Sister 7 album: “We’ll all be forgiven…” Her lyrics pointed toward a loving God who I had come to know, and even recognized that the human institutions claiming to represent God sometimes missed the boat. Her music continues to influence my own theology of a...