Writer, Speaker, Editor, Blogger
Last week, November 8, our anniversary, was a happy day for me. I played mental reruns of the joy of our wedding day and laughed as I remembered some of the funny parts of that day 44 years ago. I was proud of myself for not allowing it to be a day of sadness and […]
I once met a man who hadn’t spoken to his brother in a decade or longer. I was surprised to learn his brother lived just up the street from the man. When I asked what precipitated their estrangement, he said, “I don’t even remember what made us stop talking to each other.” How sad these […]
God created us with the ability to experience emotions. But if you’ve ever lashed out in anger or been the victim of someone’s anger, you know unbridled emotions are powerful and can be destructive. Thankfully, we don’t have to be a slave to our emotions. How we act and react, and whether we allow our […]
Emotions are God-given and part of our humanness. They serve an important purpose by allowing us to express feelings and release tensions. Sometimes, we avoid emotions, suppressing them until we can experience them at a more convenient time. But often that moment never comes and those squelched emotions bubble to the surface unexpectedly and in […]
Earlier this week, my husband and I watched the first installment of a PBS drama that focused on the final years of slavery in early nineteenth century colonial Jamaica. As always, the portrayal of the brutality and injustice of slavery was jarring and unsettling. While we do not experience the type of slavery present centuries […]
The last few weeks have been fraught with frustration. Actually, this year has been fueled by one frustration after another. Delays, miscommunications, waiting, too much to juggle at once, and nonexistent customer service top my frustration list. How about you? What are your greatest sources of frustration? In thinking through some of the challenges of […]
In these turbulent days, calmness and peace are hard to find. Demonstrations, marches, violence, fear, and turmoil flood our cities, and mainstream and social media. Coming on the heels of COVID-19 quarantine, one has to wonder if all the emotion stems from fear, frustration, and confinement rather than backlash over injustice. We all experience times […]
Last week, our country entered an unprecedented phase as we hunkered down to halt the spread of a global pandemic called Coronavirus. Canceled events, conferences, and gatherings; shuttered schools and churches; closed businesses and restaurants, measures taken to implement social distancing and lessen the spread of the virus. Along with these efforts, other reactions came […]
When I was a child, we attended the high school football games where my father was once a football star. Not only did we have season tickets for the home games, we traveled to all the away games as well. I didn’t really understand the game so my attention was often drawn to the cheerleaders. […]
A few weeks ago, I pulled out several boxes of my children’s toys to entertain the grandchildren. Buried near the bottom of the first box was one of my childhood toys, a blue-haired troll. The grandchildren were initially fascinated with the wild blue hair and elfish features, but soon tired of the troll and moved […]