Lost or Found

Jim and I spent the first part of January 2023 in Israel, while the situation there was less volatile than it is now. Jim had a penchant for getting lost in thought (or absorbed in photography) while on this trip. At one stop, the bus pulled away from the curb with me yelling, “We’re not […]

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The Gift of a Good Father

I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot this week. September 11 marks 33 years since his death. None of us expected him to die at age 72, but cancer robbed him of more years on earth. No matter what age or stage of life you’re in, when a parent dies, it changes how you […]

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Remembering the Good

For the last several weeks, I’ve been going through boxes long buried in our garage and Jim’s home office. Sifting through the detritus of the life of a loved one, and the places that life intersects with yours, is a bittersweet experience. Scenes appear. Conversations float. Memories take on a life of their own. Some […]

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What We See and What We Perceive

Last week, my husband and I slipped away for some time together to celebrate our anniversary. Several times, I observed a family in the hotel restaurant. It didn’t take long to hear the dad “riding” the two children with loud reprimands about the amount of food on their plates, their slowness in eating, spillage, and […]

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Gaining Perspective on the New Year

With the dawn of a new year, many expected immediate improvement. But as we flipped the calendar to 2021 many things remain unchanged. The weariness of the old year clings to us. A year-long pandemic still rages. Overwhelming grief is an unwanted companion to many. Uncertainty is still present. So how do we gain perspective […]

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Gaining Wisdom and Understanding

When I was a child, we attended all the high school football games, at home and away. My father played football when he was in high school, continued to support the program, and enjoyed the games. However, football held no interest for me. I usually took a book and read, although shutting out the noise […]

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Mining Memories for Positives

At times, processing items from my childhood home has been like falling into a time machine and stepping out decades ago. Finding tiny plastic dishes and pots spun me back to a time when I was a preschooler and Daddy would come home for lunch and visit me in the playhouse he built for me. […]

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