For the last several weeks, it seems there has been a common thread in the sermons I have heard. It might be “welcoming the stranger” or it could be as blatant as “make sure we don’t build walls against refugees.” In either case, and in light of the national discussion (or, more likely, argument) on…
I had been sick. I mean really sick with a cold. I don’t usually bemoan those little blips in health status. I just weather them and move on. I thought I was doing that this time around too. By Monday of this week, I was sipping tea at the breakfast table and congratulating myself on…
Delivered at the memorial service for David F. Bleifield, February 6, 2017. My husband Terry and I first met Dave and Carol about 17 years ago in a Presbyterian Church. That may give you a clue that I am a Presbyterian minister, but at that time I was not serving a church, only attending.…
The cat Marvis and I have a daily routine. He climbs on top of no less than four pillows on a chair pulled up snugly against my desk and keyboard. I turn on the computer and settle into my chair. We read the news, study social media, check emails, and write. But I have to…
I don’t like dill pickles. Never have, never will. Once I tried a dill pickle and soda cracker diet (of my own invention). Didn’t work, of course. I think I figured if I ate something so sour it would spoil my appetite for anything else. That was an incorrect assumption. I don’t like fried pickles…
I recently saw a video on the internet of a woman singing in church. She was accompanied only by the guitar. The words were “Amazing Grace:” Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind but now I see. She sang all…
We once had a neighbor with some anger issues. Our relationship started out pretty well with me taking a casserole over to the house when the family first moved in. Little did I know that there were at least 12 to 14 people living there and four of them were adults. I fear my casserole…
Apparently, corduroy has been around for a couple of centuries. But I remember corduroy from the ‘60s (1960s) when men had sport coats made out of corduroy and with patches on the elbows. Whether he wore one or not, I’ve always associated the patched-elbow corduroy jacket with actor Chad Everett who starred in a 1960s…
[Just a note to my faithful readers: this is my 100th post to this blog since I started writing weekly. When I have been tempted to walk away, you have kept me here. Thank you so much!] Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature this year. For whatever reason, he decided not to…
There are Christmases when I can’t help but think back to a church I served a number of years ago. On the Sunday of the Christmas program, the children were all lined up and ready to do their parts. There was plenty of humor scattered throughout the play. It was put on in the form…