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Barefoot freedom

One of my favorite feelings as a kid was achieved by walking barefooted through the cool grass in the early morning. I think for most of my childhood, shoes were simply an accessory wore when you went to town. Otherwise, there was nothing covering the bottoms or the tops of my feet. The bottoms were always […]

The honeysuckle pull

The sweet smell of honeysuckle lightly drifted over the back porch steps as I sit at the top of a thirty-step descent to the ground below. At three-years-old this was a surmountable achievement to navigate these without tumbling to the bottom. And in reality my mother was always watchfully standing by looking through the porch […]

Recognizing Sacrifice

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” the book of John tells us.  There are many professions that include in their description the possibility that their duties might place the person in harm’s way while serving others. Some we see regularly are police and firefighters. […]

Some days you should stay in bed

As I turned the key and the engine on the gray Murray riding mower was balking, I sort of knew it was going to be one of those days. With a little prompting though I was off and running. Many people love to mow, although I started mowing other people’s yards at about age nine, […]

Want a friend?

There are people that you meet in life sometimes become professional associates, some become friends, some become family. As a child, I didn’t find it easy to make friends. Not because I did not try, but because I didn’t easily fit into the childhood molds and thus it took the other person to have to […]

A heart of hope and help

I can remember going door to door as a youth collecting canned foods to place in paper bags with the blue letters marked upon the sides – Goodwill. This organization was one of the many that our family moved the young people in my circles to do work to benefit. When parents work to instill […]

Warsh and wear

Today most folks don’t give a second thought if they get their clothes dirty to go and change into another outfit. Of late, I have found myself babying a electric dryer as I have been trying to get parts to keep it working, so I am a little more cautious about how many clothes I […]

What does it mean ?

There are many times in my life when I have searched for the reason someone that I care for becomes ill or suffers through some series of events. I have sat by the bedside looking at tubes connected to someone’s body; and watched people struggle to find a new normal while coming back from a change […]

The amazing sanctuary of a library

My fascination with taking my fingers and flipping through the pages of a book began early in my life. Beginning with the children’s books read by my mother, I soon found myself carried into other worlds created by the minds of authors. Once I started school, I soon spent any free time in the school […]

The lasting effects of friends

     John Donne wrote centuries ago “No man is an island.” Sometimes I think we may run our lives in a fashion that we think we are an island.      If we are blessed, we surround ourselves with family, friends, acquaintances, but are they really part of us and we a part of […]