Blog Archives - Page 7 of 11 - Dallin Malmgren
2020
Family Ties
Loving one another in the time of corona presents some unique challenges. I know my operating instructions: love God and love one another. The loving God part demands its own essay—except for this reminder…He is with us always, and we express love by enjoying Someone’s company and responding to Him. But let’s focus on loving […]
2020
RoomSJ
(Recent observations on my Spiritual Journey) The movie thing was fun, but I’ve been thinking more about the previous post regarding all of us being on a Spiritual Journey. Isn’t it cool that they all begin in the same way—with a first breath somewhere on the space/time continuum of planet Earth and with a final […]
2020
My Best Movies Ever
I have a long history with movies, but a terrible memory for them. Realizing this, I have for many years written down every movie I watched and given it a grade. I can tell anyone if I saw a movie and how much I liked it. For one span of my writing career, I gave […]
2020
A letter to my fans (haha)
Dear fans (haha): Yes, I realize the ridiculousness of it. As if there are people out there thinking Go, Dallin—write away, big guy—knock one out of the park! And yet, I find it almost impossible to write without thinking of an audience (usually God or Bethany), so this one is for you, the reader. As […]
2020
Puzzling
Let’s face it, we’re battening down the hatches for Covid-19 again. That means more time at home—and probably more time for puzzling. I read somewhere that jigsaw puzzle companies are enjoying a greater economic boon than grocery stores! And crossword puzzles are blowing up too. Even Doonesbury (my favorite comic) had a crossword puzzle for […]
2020
My anxiety provokers
These are anxious times, no doubt about it. The world is in trouble. On the national level, the news is almost never good. On the local level, dissension and fear seem to dominate our consciousness. On the personal level, even a phone call can instill dread—is it bad news? A stiff upper lip can only […]
2020
“…all I have to do is believe?”
After two straight posts revolving around my misspent youth, I thought I’d try for something more redemptive… Although I probably would have denied it, I wasn’t in very good shape in the spring of 1976: living alone in a small apartment…separated from my first wife for over a year…smoking pot every day, usually several times…in […]
2020
Carl
For most of my life I had a rocky relationship with my father. My brother was a paragon of virtue (that’s how I learned the word paragon–having it ascribed to my brother). I floundered in his wake academically, and I never could find another channel that would win my dad’s approval. In fairness, I probably […]
2020
Those were the days…
Did you have that period in your life when you were on your own and you didn’t have a plan? While it might not be the norm, the norm being college—job—marriage—stability—get your adventure where you can find it, it must be fairly common. Those Days where you were still figuring out where you were going […]
2020
Breathe, Part II
Breathing is the clearest channel on which we can apprehend God. Breathe (part I) was on December 6, 2017—it was reassuring to find I am on the same path. Breathing is the most elemental thing we do—even more so than eat or drink or anything else. We take breathing for granted, just like we take […]
2020
God as a live oak
I don’t write much about prayer. Certainly, I’m an advocate. But it’s hard to mention your prayer life without sounding sanctimonious. Jesus said something about praying in secret. God has shown me a thousand times that whenever I start thinking about how spiritual I am, I have turned in the wrong direction. Still, I’ve been […]
2020
The Sameness
One major effect of the quarantine: The Sameness. It was unavoidable—your options have been severely reduced. When getting in your car involves a decision to risk your life and endanger others (it really does), The Sameness of staying home doesn’t seem like such a bad decision. Of course, the re-opening of our country greatly diminishes […]
2020
Golf is a spiritual exercise
Yep. I’m sticking with my premise, even with my wife rolling her eyes some of the time. If there was no God, I would not play golf. Even if that is a lie, I would not play so happily, surrounded by joy. To take my divinization even further, golf is a spiritual exercise for most […]
2020
2020
The Skeleton in my Closet
My uncle, Hafis Salich, served time in San Quentin as a Russian spy. Honest. My mother’s family had to leave Russia when the communists took over. Born in Moscow, she was seven years old when they left. At least, I think so. My mother’s birth date was listed as January 1,1917. I have been told […]
2020
Pescatarians for a week…
Well, almost a week. Tomorrow morning will be a week. I got the idea when we started hearing about all the Covid problems in the meat-packing plants. Rather than hoarding meat, it seemed like we could explore other options. Karen liked the idea. Both of us realized it would probably be good health-wise. My third […]
2020
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…”
I didn’t get off to a very good start with The Church—thankfully, we have developed a mutual respect over the years. Just beyond my backyard was the St. Dorothy Catholic Church and parochial school. I was not Catholic. My mother and grandmother hated Catholicism—not sure why. (My sister Diana recently told me that she attended […]
2020
To shave or not to shave
I have never liked shaving. During my teaching career, I went by the every-other-day rule—or tried to. Part of the reason I shaved is because Karen wanted me to. Much as I tried to sell her on the Harrison Ford stubble (I even purchased an Indiana Jones hat!), she never bought it. Another reason I […]
2020
Fate vs. Chance
It’s the age-old debate—so ancient we no longer think about it. Put it another way: God’s will vs. man’s choice. or predestination vs. free will. In my post-adolescent years, we’d debate about it into the night, and in my early Christian years, we’d search the Bible for pat answers to it. It never has been […]
2020
Ascia
As distant and estranged as I felt from my father growing up (hmm, Father’s Day essay?), so I seemed attached and connected to my mother. Not in a cloying, spend-lots-of-time-together way–in fact, I don’t remember ever spending much time with her. But somehow, my mother got me. There was one stretch, somewhere between grades five […]
2020
God is in control
It struck me like a lightning bolt as I was sitting on my back porch. We all know that He is concerned. We all know He will comfort us. We all know He loves us. But do we believe, even for a second, that He is in control? That right now He has a handle […]
2020
Keeping a vow
On July 2, 2019 I made a vow to God. The plan had always been that when I retired from teaching, I would concentrate on my writing. But I had been retired for five years and had hardly written anything (except my prayers). Had I deceived myself all this time about being a writer? I […]
2020
A movie that changed my life
Art does more than entertain. At its best, it elevates. And so, I ask, what is the most impactful movie that you ever saw…the one that changed your way of thinking, your perception of the world and your role in it. Several come to mind for me (2001: A Space Odyssey, Ben Hur, King of […]
2020
Spiritual dryness
“…all is vanity and striving after wind…” It has crept up on me the last week or so. I can recognize it, but I’m not very good at combating it. It’s a disturbing malaise—a vague uneasy feeling of lethargy. I still believe the same things—it’s just like it’s tacked up on a bulletin board rather than […]
2020
My old-fashioned
This one is more about pain relief than spiritual upliftment…which is okay in the time of Corona. I want to write about my favorite drink: the Old-fashioned. This is how I make mine: The glass is important. I like a utilitarian glass, something that sits on the counter solidly—nothing delicate or flutey (see photo), and […]
2020
Bond. James Bond. (My paean to reading)
As a retired English teacher, one of the most distressing observations I can make about American youth (then and now, I believe) is that they don’t want to read. Oh, there were flurries of hope: The Twilight series (if you call that hope) and Harry Potter, and…and…that’s about it. When I used to ask in […]
2020
What I endorse: the corona version
This is my third “endorse” post—I used endorsements as a writing exercise in my Creative Writing classes. You just tell the world about things you like. My first one was about everyday things, like raspberries and polar bears. My second post was the artistic version, featuring artists like Tim Duncan and Leonard Cohen. This one […]
2020
How are you doing?
Introspection is usually a healthy activity—even moreso in the time of Corona. Covid-19 has affected our lives in many different ways, but we do share one commonality: all of our lives have been greatly affected. Every one of us can say: I’ve never been through anything like this before. And it affects everything about us—our […]
2020
The right to vote
This is totally non-partisan. I want every single person who reads this to vote. I want every single person who reads this to encourage every single person they know to vote. My goal is for this election to be the year that more people voted than ever before. I want every single state to make […]
2020
My Coronavirus Questions
I don’t count the number of quarantine days, but I know it has been a lot. These are the things I wonder about: –This is a plague of biblical proportions. What is God’s point of view? –When does personal safety become obsessive? –Is this the Darwinian concept of “thinning the herd”? –Should Trump be given a pass for […]