Little hands on mighty hips, my seven-year-old face-offed with her teacher. The innocent question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” torched the classroom. It seems out of the entire class only my daughter thought the response, “I want to be a Mom,” worth defending. Like a ninja warrior. I’m afraid the […]
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There is a rock outside the church we attend. It’s a huge sort of how-in-the-world did that-big-thing-get-there boulder. It shoots out of the ground with no apparent means or logic. Whether it grew in place or if someone somehow planted it there no one knows. And every Sunday after church kids swarm to the […]
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Holidays come down with a splat for me once they are over. If I’d schedule a pity-party that is precisely when it would be. It’s symptomatic of intense preparation coupled with a lack of forward vision. And so, in the aftermath of cleaning up and eating leftover lamb, I find in my quiet house […]
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“…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 ESV Fifty years is a long time. Half a century. It’s also just a breath, feather-light and temporary. My […]
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“It has no taste,” I told my husband last summer, disappointed the meat on my plate was not cooked right. But once the words came out, I recognized them as significant. My sense of taste and smell had vanished. This happened to a lot of people in the last couple of years. My grandkids on […]
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As a child I loved working with dot to dot pictures. I pondered them before I put pencil to paper, trying to form in my mind the whole picture, wanting to unravel the yet unknown. With a crayon tight in his fist, my grandson looked at me satisfied and proud. The dot to dot on […]
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“Thar’ she blows,” a friend quipped of his late wife. A sweet soul and my dear friend, she apparently hid a temper under her skin, not easily aroused but impressive to its recipients. He spoke of it with a twinkle in his eye, love in his laugh, and loss deep in his heart. Her spunky […]
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“Is there wildlife?” she asked over the phone. After moving from the midwest where deer and antelope play and seldom is heard a discouraging word, I paused just a moment to consider. Well, there is my husband, I thought. “Deer,” I replied. We are supposedly retired here in the east. Wildlife no more. But, my […]
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“What?” he asks. Only it’s not so much a question as a two-year-old’s bold reaction to just about everything. His forehead draws together, his questioning mouth opens and his head jerks around. His spreads his legs. His little man hand stretches upright like a policeman stopping traffic. “What?” “Wait for me.” “What?” My kids did […]
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“And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.” 1 Sam. 5:3 ESV Snow is falling thick outside our Virginia home. It is beautiful in the way […]
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