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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Water faucet and refrigerator leaks, garbage disposal freezes from working, blower motor on heating and air conditioning unit wears out, dryer timer goes out, and the blinkers on my cars quit. There is an old saying that says “When it rains, it pours.” I feel like I have been on a never-ending marathon of late, […]
The warm air, a slight breeze, sunshine shining on my face, are all things that raise my spirits as we set off through another spring season. As a boy, this time of year was set aside for preparing and planting our family garden. I will never forget one year in some reading I had found […]
When there was no place among people for Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, the animals made room for the birth of Jesus in a stable. Donkeys and horses were probably among the first to look upon the Son of God. Isn’t it only appropriate that there be a place for them in the Kingdom of […]
As I began my search for ancestors, I never knew what wonders the stories would open to me. Seeing history come to life through people to which I am related helped to make historical events more than just words upon a page. I am sure that some of the tales have grown with time and […]
It was already the dark of the night when I went out to the woodpile and gathered as many pieces of wood as my little arms would hold. I tried to get into the back door but could not manage to figure out how to turn the tarnished brass doorknob while keeping my load. It […]
