My acquisition of the Italian language really doesn’t reflect the amazing teacher I had in Florence, Italy, or the excellence of her skills. Like Michaelangelo she chipped away, always confident that deep within me something stunningly amazing would come forth. I did stun quite often actually, like whenever I opened my mouth. The amazing part […]
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(This post may have a familiar ring to it. You may have read it on the first go around Feb. 14, 2017, but it’s especially appropriate for a revisit before Valentine’s Day sneaks up on you.) I was twenty. So was he. We didn’t go through a lot of wrenching machinations about if we […]
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Featured recently at Just18Summers.com “It was a Facetime call. I held it up and saw some of the cutest little faces looking at me. “Grandma!” My five-year-old grandson and his three-year-old brother exclaimed. “Grandma, where are you?” A frown drew the older grandson’s brows together…” Read Article Here
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“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” –Bill Clinton. Every time my husband and I round a particular corner, political signs crop into our sight like spring tulips. The lawn in front of the red brick ranch house is so full of signs I can’t quite read them all before they […]
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My husband has a carpenter’s chalk line. He rolls it out, squints down its straight line and lifts it slightly between thick fingers, then lets it snap. It leaves a distinct chalk line marking what he needs cut, not cut, lined up or whatever. The mark itself will eventually fade or be covered up, but […]
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“…my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.” Ps. 73:2 (ESV) I feel like a lot of us are walking into a log across our path, or maybe on quick sand. The Psalmist Asaph writes like someone living today, with unrest and chaos, confusion and division. Everywhere we look there is something to […]
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“Uh, uh, uh,” I hear the warning in three short grunts. I turn quickly to find out what my not-quite-two-year-old grandson is doing. My quickness is due first to fear for his safety and secondly for the life of whatever he might be holding in those chubby little fingers. But touching what a baby should […]
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Another year has passed. No wait a minute, I hear you say, not just any year. 2020 is behind us. But like a nightmare that drags its headache into the day, we feel its shadow as 2021 begins…It is good to be at a place where we cannot. It is there we find God can. Read the full […]
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Dad always wanted lots of light for reading in our old farmhouse. There were never enough and they were never bright enough. I remember well his hand, freckled with age spots as he settled into his old blue recliner. He reached up to the floor lamp and turned the little black switch. It flooded brightness […]
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It happens every year. It’s like trying to finish off the Christmas cookies, fudge and eggnog so I can start dieting in January. It’s such a burden. But perhaps none quite so marked as this New Year with its old past. How does one celebrate beginnings while dragging weights that aren’t yet ended? Can a […]
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