A highlight of my week is Wednesday evenings, when about half a dozen of us ladies slip into a church basement and study the Bible together. We are an odd assortment, but we love each other. Sometimes we laugh over zany high school memories and other times we cry over present struggles. I'm the oldest …
Do not harden your heart
2020 is the year the world got sick and the wackos came out of the woodwork. Or so it seems.I have never seen such strong polarization among the world as I know it. People's emotions are on edge, the verbal sparring always threatening to overwhelm anyone wanting to engage in simple conversation. Feelings are hurt, …
I’m back
I'm sitting in our local coffee shop, sipping a creamy latte out of a blue ceramic cup and forking down the most delicious crepes. "Overwhelming" is a mild word to state what life has been for me this summer. Navigating a pandemic, finalizing an adoption, mothering five children, working part-time, starting a ranch, and facing …
Father, in the heavens
A few months ago I stumbled across a snippet of advice that became transformational in an unexpected way. When the deluge of information about COVID-19 first hit, including the instruction for frequent hand-washing, someone on Facebook suggested praying the Lord's Prayer while washing our hands. The idea stuck with me since I work as a …
Seeking the Stream
If you ask me how Covid-19 has affected me personally, I feel a gaping numbness inside. I may be a nurse and one of "those" essential workers, but the time-consuming job of covering up from head to toe like a masked robber and ramming a swab far into the nether regions of a patient's head …
The gentleness of wisdom
"I feel like seventy-five percent of my relationships are stressful right now," I admitted to Will as I watched his skilled fingers smooth wood filler into the nail holes of the cabinet he was making for me.While Will's hands shaped the cabinet-wood, he listened to me in his gentle and wise way. He didn't try …
Participating with God during the COVID-19 pandemic
The internet is an overwhelming place right now. Yesterday Will and I discussed it as I dropped sweet corn seeds into a newly-tilled patch of earth in our front yard. "It's like walking into a room where 30 people are all screaming at you," Will said. The current coronavirus pandemic has made many people nearly …
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Changing the World by Listening
The world is full of noise. If you are like me, you find it very overwhelming. Social media hasn't helped curb the constant stream of ideas, feelings, and opinions flooding our personal spaces. I have often thought about the lost art of listening. I believe one of the primary ways that God touches broken lives …
bittersweet
Thank you to all of you who kindly offered advice on dealing with winter. Spring is slowly coming; I feel it in the air. Days of warm, windy weather are mixing in with the cold spells, and certainly the green cannot stay away for long! Today is one of those warm, windy days. I'm sitting …
Winter
Every winter I hit that spot when it feels like winter will never leave. Here in Kansas we don't even have the beauty of glistening snow to brighten our days; except for rare snowfalls, the days are an endless succession of shades of brown. The trees are brown, the grass is brown, the street is …
