Close Encounters With God

The topic of my last twelve-step meeting was ‘Higher Power.’  Our chairperson began with a reading on the topic and then asked each of us to either read another reading on the subject or to share our experience about the god of our understanding. One fellow began to tell us that he didn’t have a […]

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A Patch of Light…

There is a patch of light that comes through my window, late in the afternoon. On cooler days, the dogs find their way upstairs to bask in that light. Sometimes, I join them. I like to imagine that the warmth that soaks into my skin is a loving embrace from God. I imagine Him with […]

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Feeling the Feelings

I know that a hot flash is coming as soon as my heartbeat picks up it’s pace. I try to out-run it by quickly rolling up my sleeves.  I look for any object that can be turned into a fan.  Then, I try to slow my breathing down. I hate hot flashes.  I often wonder […]

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New Coping Skills

Meet Lucy.  She loves our morning walk.  She stares at me like she is watching a clock. She knows the routine.  We have coffee, eat breakfast, clean the kitchen, make the bed and then we go on our 1.7 mile walk. Once she sees my tennis shoes, she goes nuts.  She dances sideways and tries […]

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God is at Center

  Last week at a meeting, a woman came in and asked if we’d seen the rainbow on our way in. “Yes, I did.”  I said. “It was so beautiful that all I could do was sigh.”  She said. “But, I think that God is only a sigh away.”  She continued. “I’ve got to write […]

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Keeping the Peace

Do you ever hear someone speak about something ordinary that you’ve heard a million times, except this time it is as if you’ve heard it completely anew and understand it in a way that you never had before? I think these are ‘God moments’ where I imagine that he’s saying the words loud and slow, […]

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Family Safety

I always dreamed of living in another place.  My dad never understood.  Why would I ever want to leave Kentucky? His dad was an alcoholic. He was a sharecropper who  rented his house from the farmer that he worked for. Because they didn’t own their home, there wasn’t much stability. When my dad turned eighteen, […]

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The Shaming Cycle

I watched a documentary called “All the Queens Horses”  about a lady named Rita Crundwell who was a city comptroller in the small town of Dixon Illinois. Rita lived alone and kept to herself.  No one thought too much about it because she had a large horse farm and she stayed busy caring for and showing […]

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Use What You Have…

I visited with my sisters in Kentucky yesterday.  We decided to go to the town of our father’s birth and search the cemeteries for our great-grandparents tombstones. I was captivated as I drove through the lush green countryside along the river banks.  Had my father driven these same roads?  What would he think about his […]

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