We–I mean all of us–used to send more mail; we had baskets of pre-selected cards and special pens, pretty stamps and seals.  We even went to parties to learn how to emboss and bought accessories to make art deliverable by post.  Despite our busy lives, Stampin Up is still a thing.  I checked. Automatically, those […]

I remember the year that opening gifts made my daughter weep. She stood in front of me, just there, tight blond curls falling haphazardly around her ears, belly pudging out the shirt of her Christmas pajamas, holding a silvery gift.  At 3, she still didn’t understand our expectant faces, or even what made toys fun, […]

Mom, what will you write about today?    Her question is a gift; a jewel in my palm. She sits at the bar looking very nearly sixteen–golden head bent over her phone and all those little flyaways catching the early light; a cup of coffee just south of her hand, steaming; a dozen bracelets sliding […]

For my brothers and sisters roaming this desert land, wondering even now about the how: For you, it will maybe come out of nowhere, the way He spoke it.  Then again, maybe not. Through the middle, you be the tree in the wilderness, the tree that looks like my tree. He’d been leading up to it […]

Dear friends, I hope that where ever you are when you read this, whether the tears are fresh on your cheeks or you’ve just been staring at the bluest sky, that you will know that you are loved, and important, and valued.  Even the most ordinary things you do matter to someone.  I know sometimes […]

Some time ago, I asked God to teach me to love. It’s interesting to me, after all these years, that the first passages of scripture my mom took me to, teaching me to allow the Spirit to write the Word on my heart, were passages about love.  Sitting on her bed after the light had […]

ac·knowl·edg·ment [ak-nol-ij-muhnt] –noun  1.an act of acknowledging. 2.recognition of the existence or truth of something 3.an expression of appreciation. 4.a thing done or given in appreciation or gratitude. As a writer, I love those lists at the beginning of books, wherein the author mentions all the people who have contributed something to their finished work.  […]

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.  Isaiah 43: 18,19 Happy New Year! First, let me say that it is my deepest wish […]