A week ago, I sent my cousins back to their respective homes in Florida, South Carolina, Arkansas and Oregon.  It was a bittersweet parting after five glorious days together.  We did a little sight-seeing, hot-tubbing, playing cards and dominoes.  We shopped for groceries together and took walks in ...

I have a strong desire to help people, particularly those that I see making self-destructive choices…choices that not only take them into places that make their own lives harder, but also impact others as well, including me.  I’ve had incidents when I can so clearly see someone is being hampered by ...

Their heads are so large and heavy.
   It’s a wonder that their slender
stems can hold them up, even when
   buffeted by a strong spring breeze.
But like the lilies of the field,
   the irises are maintained by the
perfect design of their creator
   who is in the business of
doing death-defying tricks.

Why...

After days of praying and soul-searching, I have decided to fast from doom-scrolling on my phone.  I love to see what my daughter and daughter-in-law have posted on their Instagram accounts, but I can follow checking them out with scrolling down through endless offerings.  It is a total time-suck, a...

Two of the most impactful fasts of past Lents were my television fast, and fasting from giving unsolicited advice.  But my all-time favorite fast was not my own.  It was the season when my daughter gave up mirrors for Lent.  Actually, she assiduously avoided looking at herself in ANY reflective surf...

The dirt’s packed hard.  I take my trowel
and loosen the soil, digging a hole
deep enough for the tiniest seed.  The earth
feels dusty in my hands; it lodges under
my nails as I pack it down on top of this
embryonic plant.

I need no supplement for the soil.
The ash of thousands of lives gone up in smoke
h...

“Every believer was faithfully devoted to following the teachings of the apostles.  Their hearts were mutually linked to one another…They shared meals together with joyful hearts and tender humility.”  From Acts 2:42-47 

I read this passage with a pang of wistful longing for the church of Jesus Chr...

The youngest ones bolt up the mountain
  with eager exuberance; nothing
can stop them from running to
  the summit.  But I am out of breath,
climbing this holy hill.  It is a climb
  that I have made repeatedly
slogging up the trail for over fifty years. 
  It gets harder and harder,
muscles sore, lungs hea...

My husband, like most men, is so difficult to shop for.  That’s why this year when I heard him say before Christmas that he’d like to go to the symphony sometime, I went right online and ordered tickets for a Beethoven and Tchaikovsky concert on Sunday afternoon, January 19.  I had no idea what woul...

If you had to leave your home in a fire, what would you take?  Almost everyone says photo albums, medications, important documents.  I bet no one says tennis rackets. 

Even after returning last Wednesday, I haven’t yet unpacked my car.  We had to evacuate at 4:30 AM from the Eaton Fire in Altadena....