I am starting 2022 with a clean dining table. Note: in a few hours this will be a mess again. The dining room table is both our work spaces. But for now, it is tidy, and I read a little “devotion” about gratitude even — especially when life presses in. Peering down...
Once again the seasonal programming that my favorite public broadcasting radio stations promote smacked me out of a forthcoming funk. Each year its every-where -ness startles me! Whoever decided what to play when, their selections are again venues of seasonal...
I am repeating a post that Doug wrote about hope many years ago after his brother-in-law, Dick McGrew's death. It bears repeating in these uncertain times. The Excitement on the Landing … The home where I grew up had a second-floor landing which ran between my older...
Thanks to a surge of a variant of the virus that “simplified” Christmas last year, Christmas 2021 just got a whole lot simpler! Well, I’ve been grousing for years that Christmas, etc was too much hype.* Couldn’t we just simplify our festivities, and focus on the...
When I looked, it was clear a Christmas cactus was brilliantly blooming despite me! Oh! it was better than a Christmas card! Throughout the year I barely kept it watered; yet out it popped— blooming its fool head off. One of our two Christmas cactuses is blooming...
When Netflix and Prime on our TV went kaput, we felt as if bereft of good friends who helped us cope when the news got weird. Netflix and Prime have been good friends these past twenty-one months; they have distracted and calmed us, often providing ample walks down...
In these times of increasing powerlessness to change anything more than a light bulb, I catch my self wringing my emotional hands — What can I do? What can I say? Not much . . . Take my advice, I'm not using it … bumper sticker That’s the soil beneath the surface...
A Grand Day it Was . . . It was a grand day, even for a Monday. Nature and a string of green lights conspired to promote emotional peace and harmony as I journeyed to an appointment. I had left with plenty of time to make the 11:00 AM doctor’s appointment AND I...
Watching the credits of recently discovered mystery series, Bergerac, I saw it was broadcast first in 1981. That was a very fine year, 1981. We lived in downtown Annapolis; I got sober, and we became parents for the second time. I was also a brand new Christian —...
One of the memories I cherish from our time on Dallas was our neighbors’ creative lawn art. Whether we walked first thing in the morning or after dark, we loved the creativity and humor. Halloween in Dallas was rarely chilly; the weather was usually summery and...
It’s true: I don’t like to think of myself as losing ground; but: When your mind thinks you can do what you did at 35 and you’re 70 years old, it’s only a matter of time before you get yourself hurt. (John Erickson) Maybe it’s because I had so much time on my hands...
Today begins our first full day of living without Uncle Bud, Doug’s mother’s younger brother. He was a fixture in my life for almost 50 years, and for Doug’s whole existence— 82 years! It’s going to be weird to be living without Uncle Bud — for he was a person who...
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