June 11, 2025
Bill Harkins
What Merlin is teaching me…………….
The long green season of Pentecost has now begun, and the winds of the Holy Spirit were certainly present among those of us who gathered on Sunday. A deep bow of gratitude to all who contributed so much to make this a wonderful day, including the worship team, and the choir—including our intrepid bell ringers! And especially the hospitality and parish life committees, who, as ever, graciously hosted us for the Pentecost sing along. Indeed, there was a sweet, sweet spirit in that place!
There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place,
And I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord;
There are sweet expressions on each face,
And I know they feel the presence of the Lord.
~ Music and Lyrics by Doris Akers
As Pentecost begins, I encourage each of us, me included, to slow down, and ease into summer and this season with perhaps a new rhythm, trusting that all shall be well, and remembering that we need not add more (unnecessary) items to our “to do” list. Sometimes I need help in slowing down, and on occasion that assistance has come from unexpected places!
When I was in the 8th grade, I was the only member of the Sandy Springs High School football team (back then, high school began in 8th grade) who was still in Boy Scouts. For reasons I never understood, most of my football teammates had left scouting, believing that it was no longer “cool” and/or perhaps simply under duress of scheduling challenges. I hung on as long as I could, but the latter issue proved my scouting downfall. Our pack leader was the great grandson of a Confederate General, and a certain rigidity had somehow gotten passed down into the DNA of the family. He was an “either/or” kind of guy for whom non-binary options were, sadly, anathema. I was told that being late to the Scout/BSA pack meetings because of football practice was simply not acceptable. He had a “three strikes and you’re out” rule, and after my third instance of tardiness (at age 12-13 I was still dependent on my parents for transportation) I was unceremoniously dismissed.
I had been working on my ornithology badge at the time, and had completed all the requirements necessary, only to fall short due to my untimely expulsion. The thing is, I loved Scouting and found core values of discipline and structure to be a gift. I learned some of those values there, and they have proven a moveable feast, and have endured over time. I want to add that a life in academia, summers working in a steel mill, and certainly, athletics provided similar gifts. I am still a runner today because of the ongoing joy and, yes, discipline it provides.
In the ensuing years, as Vicky can attest, I have always had bird feeders around and I’ve assiduously recorded their seasonal migrations and habits. This led to unexpected joys, including a deep dive into the study of Ravens (Corvus Corax Common raven – Wikipedia), a result of a number of wilderness encounters with ravens over the years. I once saw a raven, sitting atop a red light in Petersburg, Alaska drop a crab carcass in the middle of an intersection when the light turned green. Cars ran over the carcass, cracking it open and revealing the delicacy of crabmeat, now a kind of ala carte offering. When the light turned red, the raven flew into the intersection, retrieved the offering, and flew off loudly announcing a successful bit of culinary mischief. In Episcopal churches in Southeast Alaska, popular among the Tlingit indigenous tribe, one can find totems honoring the raven clan:
And as announced on NPR yesterday, ravens are now nesting with greater frequency in North Georgia…
Rare ravens return to Georgia to nest – WABE
But I digress.
Despite, or perhaps precisely because of my inappropriate dismissal from scouting, I have so enjoyed my adventures in avian learning. Recently, I downloaded the Merlin app…
Merlin Bird ID – Free, instant bird identification help and guide for thousands of birds – Identify the birds you see
…which makes possible immediate identification of birds wherever one may be. On a recent trail run in Montana with our son Justin, here’s a brief list of birds I identified via the Merlin app:
Western Meadowlark (Montana state bird); Western Wood Pe-Wee; Yellow Warbler; Bald Eagle; Least Flycatcher; House Finch
In Montana, my times out on the trail were much slower, both as a result of the scenery…
…and my new Merlin App!
Well, you get the idea. I am grateful to Justin for his patience as I stopped on the trails to use the app and identify birds while on our runs. We love trail running together, as does his younger brother Andrew, and we have delighted in those rare occasions when we can do this together…
On a recent trail run up to Mt. Oglethorpe, in our neighborhood, here are a few “listening’s”:
Red Eyed Vireo; Yellow Throated Vireo; Pine Warbler; Red-Bellied Woodpecker; Eastern Bluebird; Hooded Warbler
Fellow avian-loving sojourners will immediately recognize that the woods this time of year are filled with migrating warblers, typically not year-round residents of our mountains. Each of my recordings required that I pause on the trail, take out my phone, turn on the app, and record the songs I was hearing. As a lifelong runner often too preoccupied with clock time (Chronos) as opposed to spirit time (Kairos) Merlin is helping me to remember what is most important about these woodland peregrinations…namely, slowing down, paying attention, and letting nature heal mind, body, and spirit.
In Pentecost we are reminded that God is among us, abide with us, and that we can welcome the Holy Spirit, our advocate, no matter where we are on our journey. As the lovely author Marilynne Robinson as written:
“It has seemed to me sometimes as though the Lord breathes on this poor gray ember of Creation and it turns to radiance – for a moment or a year or the span of a life. And then it sinks back into itself again, and to look at it no one would know it had anything to do with fire, or light. This is what I said in the Pentecost sermon. I have reflected on that sermon, and there is some truth in it. But the Lord is more constant and far more extravagant than it seems to imply. Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration. You don’t have to bring a thing to it except a little willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?”
~ Marilynne Robinson
Indeed, our willingness during Pentecost to slow down, find a new rhythm, and pay attention to the extravagant radiance available to us is ours to choose when and how we are able. As my time as interim priest among you ends, and I take a deep breath, and as Vicky and I reconnect with our families in Montana and Houston, I am so very grateful for Holy Family, and for this sacred time together over the past year. Thank you so much for the wonderful sendoff party, for the lovely gifts of art supplies and a lovely, beautifully woven quilt, and for the many notes and well-wishes Vicky—my partner in life and ministry of 43 years—and I have received. Thank you! And we give thanks that our new rector, Mark Winward, will be joining us soon, and for his good health report!
Recently, deep in the woods, I thought I heard the faint call of a raven just over the next ridge. My Merlin app couldn’t pick up the sound, but I am certain that’s what it was. I was reminded of this lovely poem by Wendell Berry:
Horseback on Sunday morning,
harvest over, we taste persimmon
and wild grape, sharp sweet
of summer’s end. In time’s maze
over fall fields, we name names
that rest on graves. We open
a persimmon seed to find the tree
that stands in promise,
pale, in the seed’s marrow.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. What we need is here.
~ Wendell Berry, Wild Geese, Selected Poems
Indeed, all shall be well, and yes, what we need is here. Let’s covenant to slow down this summer, shall we? Let’s take care to “pay attention, be astonished, and tell about it…” as our fellow Episcopalian Mary Oliver suggested. On our recent trip to Montana we watched our granddaughter Alice and her Real Billings Football Club (8-year-olds) demonstrate remarkable skills on the pitch, and her twin brother Jack as he won the 100-meter run. I was reminded of Eriksons’ developmental stages of life, the penultimate of which is “generativity v. despair.”
In the generativity stage, we contribute to the next generation in ways that allow us to transcend time, planting sequoias, as Wendell Berry suggests, that we will not live to see fully grown. This allows us to live with integrity in our final stage, letting go of attachment to former narratives. I was the Fulton County schoolboy 100-yard dash champion when I was 12 years old, but I saw my grandson run a faster time at age 8 last week. I was glad about this, and for the reminder that ultimately, time is more about Kairos than Chronos. Indeed, Jack and Alice, and the raven, and my Merlin app, are all teaching me that what we need is here, and we pray to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear.
I’ll catch you later down the trail, and I pray Pentecost blessings on you all!
Godspeed, Bill
April 24, 2025
Bill Harkins
Quantum Entanglement, Higgs Bosun, Gabriel Marcel, and Holy Family!
Well, I’ve done it again! Against all odds, another Notes from the Trail! Still, as I drove to the Cathedral Counseling Center early on Monday morning, I was filled with gratitude for all of you, and I wanted to say “Thank you”! Thank you for all that you did to make this a memorable Holy Week in every way, from adapting to safe practices on Palm Sunday with grace and good humor, to services each and every day during Holy Week, especially Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and a glorious morning on Easter beginning with the Vigil and on to our lovely service at 10:30. Thanks to everyone from Hospitality and the Altar and Flower Guilds, to our amazing Digital Ministry and our Verger and LEM crew! A deep bow of gratitude for my dear colleagues Katharine and Byron, our incredible choir & friends, led by John King Carter, and even the newest iteration of our Bell Choir! Thank you all! Yes, indeed, we are all connected to one another, and in the breaking of the Bread, we too become the Body of Christ, sent out to do that good work to which we are called. At table, we find ourselves experiencing God’s grace, and joy, in wonderful and surprising ways. We welcome all to our Table, including Caroline and her guest, Gerald the Giraffe:
In Quantum physics, we know that elementary particles gain mass through interactions with the “Higgs field.” Similarly,
April 15, 2025
Tuesday in Holy Week – Bill Harkins
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
March 19, 2025
Bill Harkins
The physical structure of the Universe is love. It draws together and unites; in uniting, it differentiates. Love is the core energy of evolution and its goal.”
~ Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy
Last week Vicky and I enjoyed a visit to the Fernbank Science Museum with our younger son Andrew, daughter-in-law Margaret, and grandchildren Sophia and Georgie. We have always enjoyed our sojourns to Fernbank Don’t Miss This Ultimate Exhibit at Fernbank and have fond memories of taking both of our sons there when they were young, so the tradition continues!
The week prior our older son Justin, and his family, Michelle, Alice, and Jack, who live in Montana, visited Andrew, Margaret and family in Houston, where Andrew is an oncology fellow at MD Anderson They visited the NASA space center there and saw the “mission control” center where so much history has been made…”Houston, we have a problem.”
We hoped our children would develop a sense of wonder in the natural world and an interest in science, and now we delight in spending time with our grandchildren in these contexts as well!
In 1982 I enrolled at Vanderbilt Divinity School on a trial year Lily Foundation scholarship. Vicky and I journeyed to Nashville primarily for her to work on a Master’s in Behavioral Health Nursing, while I considered resuming my interest in neuroscience upon our eventual return to Atlanta,