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 […]
Killing mosquitos reminds me of my program of recovery. You see mosquitos are pests. They carry disease and make me itch. It seems that it would be a good thing to kill them. But, then we started to notice that when we spray to kill these pests, we are also taking out large […]
In my home growing up, there was no alcohol. Between my grandfather’s alcoholism and my southern Baptist roots, it was simply forbidden. Those rules didn’t stop some members of my family from drinking to excess. That drinking caused a lot of problems. It seemed that our family’s prohibition wasn’t achieving what it had set […]
In the last three weeks, I’ve driven over three thousand miles. I am tired just writing that sentence. Beyond the fatigue, my mind wonders… These experiences felt connected, somehow. What was God trying to teach me? And, what did it all mean? My husband and I made the long trip to Washington DC, where a […]
My children were young in the nineties. The wisdom of the day on parenting, via the latest headline, newspaper or magazine article or television talk show suggested that we keep our kids busy. The thought being: “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” There were other nuggets of wisdom: put them in sports, keep them active […]
I used to facilitate an expressive writing class at our county jail. One of our fun activities involved using something called a story starter. A story starter is a way to give the writer a place to begin. I would give each young lady a slip of paper with a sentence written on it and […]
My mother used to tell me that we don’t plant trees for ourselves. They are a gift that we leave for future generations. When I posted my last blog, my sister made a comment that encouraged me to keep writing. She mentioned that we never know who we might encourage or inspire and […]