Do you have repeat authors? Do you look for all the books written by an author and read them more than once? These books call you back to visit their created lands and people—like returning to a favorite vacation spot. Two authors on my repeat list are Robin McKinley and Louise Penny. They write in… Read More
Is there a mothering gene?
A young man recently commented about the amount of patience it took to care for an under-the-weather two-year-old fulltime for a few days. He said that he thought women must have some kind of “mothering gene” that surfaced when needed. After a good laugh and composing a facetious list of latent genes that we all… Read More
from Fear to Trust
My mother is terrified of water, and I’ve been afraid of water since I was a toddler and got knocked over by waves at the beach. My parents made sure I went to swimming lessons–over and over again–hoping that learning how to swim would dissolve the dread and replace it with confidence. I became competent,… Read More
Creative Fun
I forgot how satisfying an afternoon of crafting can be until I got the invitation to a baby shower. It included this assignment: Bring a letter of the alphabet for a wall decoration for the baby’s room. It can be made out of anything! Be creative. I was assigned the letter T. So I sat… Read More
Negative or Positive?
What am I going to focus on personally? What am I going to focus on in community? What am I going to focus on nationally? When I think about the Olympics in London this year, will I dwell on the badminton scandal or the U.S. women’s volleyball team who were determined to give each game… Read More
What’s on the back of my eyelids?
“Ready for a surprise? You blink twenty-five times every minute. Each blink takes one-fifth of a second. So if you take a ten-hour automobile trip, averaging forty miles per hour, you’ll drive thirty-three miles with your eyes closed!” (Chuck Swindoll, Insight for Living, http://www.insight.org) This is the first paragraph of a July letter from Pastor… Read More
Dealing with Suffering
A three-year-old little boy dies suddenly. Healthy and happy one day, but doesn’t wake up the next morning. No warning for the family–PAIN is coming. No warning for the community What do we do? What can we say? We join with the suffering family with our tears and our prayers–the lament of sorrow grows from… Read More
