Latest Reflections
Stories of faith, memory, Scripture, and the quiet ways grace meets us in ordinary life.
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Love Still Walks Among the Graves: A Memorial Day Reflection
There is something deeply sacred about walking through a cemetery on Memorial Day. Nothing is rushed or distracted.There is no scrolling through headlines, advertisements, or noise. Just rows of stones beneath an open sky. The American flags flutter softly beside military markers. Fresh flowers rest against granite worn smooth by rain, wind, and generations of…
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The Borglum Estate and the Birth of the Czechoslovak Dream
There are moments in history that seem almost too improbable to be real. Young men working beneath the smokestacks and stockyards of South Omaha, Czech immigrants who had crossed an ocean seeking peace and stability, boarded trains eastward toward Stamford, Connecticut, not for factory work or ordinary opportunity, but to prepare themselves for war on…
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A Nation Born in the Trenches
There are moments in history when ordinary men become something larger than themselves. Not because they sought glory, riches, or conquest, but because they carried within them the hope of a people not yet free. Such was the story of the Czechoslovak Legion. Before there was a nation called Czechoslovakia, there were Czech and Slovak…
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The Legionnaires Who Dreamed a Nation into Being
There is something deeply moving about the idea of men leaving safety, steady work, and family life in America to fight for a country that did not even officially exist yet. Not for land they owned, or wealth. or even for citizenship. But for memory. For language and songs sung at kitchen tables and the…
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The Boy Who Stayed Behind at Lunch
There are moments in family history that seem small at first glance, ordinary little happenings tucked into the folds of daily life, but years later you realize they reveal an entire world that no longer exists. My Grandpa Svagera’s first days at school in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, were one of those moments. Not long ago, I…
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“To Drink and Dance With One Hand Free”
S velikou láskou dědečkovi a tetičce The dance that overflowed the heart. There are some relationships in families that seem almost providential. Not accidental or merely biological, but deeply woven together by memory, history, sacrifice, and love. That was the relationship between my Grandpa Svagera and his youngest sister, Millie. Grandpa was the oldest sibling.…
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Under The Linden Tree of Memory
Imagining Grandpa Svagera Returning to the Land of His Father There are moments in life that seem almost too sacred to put into words. Not dramatic moments or loud moments, simply quiet ones that somehow carry the weight of generations. I often find myself imagining what my Grandpa Svagera must have felt the first time…
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The Sacred Role of the Firekeeper
I recently came across a beautiful idea found among some Native American traditions. In certain tribes, those entrusted with remembering the stories, histories, genealogies, and sacred memory of the people were sometimes referred to as firekeepers. The image has stayed with me ever since. A firekeeper was not merely someone who tended literal flames. The…
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How the Czech Language Carried a People Through History
There are nations built upon borders and there are nations built upon armies.And then there are nations like the Czechs, a people who, for centuries, survived because they carried their nation inside their language. For the Czech people, perhaps more than almost anywhere else in Europe, the writer became the nation. When governments disappeared, kingdoms…
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