Many years ago there lived a little girl who loved her grandmother’s garden. You may know a girl like her or you may be like her. Summer evenings were the little girl’s favorite time. That was the time the mourning doves came to drink at the small garden pond near the front porch where she…
Apprentice
Once upon a time there was an apprentice. She was earnest, but not particularly quick to learn. Her instructor kindly and patiently repeatedly took her step by step over the process necessary to master the skill. It had been a slog, yet her instructor always encouraged her. The instructor knew that the apprentice needed to…
A Bad Day
Remember reading the children’s book, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” to your kids or grandkids? Poor Alexander had a lot of unpleasant things happen to him in one very bad day. People and things seemed to be working against him. This caused him to complain, feel defeated and angry, and…
Masterpieces
On Saturday our oldest son and his dear wife took me to see reproductions of the panels of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. Instead of traveling to Rome and viewing his ceiling masterpieces from 65 feet below, we were able to go to our own city and walk right up to each individual reproduction panel…
How to Beat Worry
We are reminded daily of inflation, economic downturn, supply chain issues, and scarcity. I don’t know about you but I have to do battle with worry or else I experience tomorrow’s problems today. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew…
Celebrating Togetherness
Our sons and daughters gave us the best 50th-anniversary celebration this past weekend. It was exactly what we had wanted but dared not hope for – having all of our six children together. Because one daughter and her family live in the Midwest far from our Pacific Northwest home, it just didn’t seem feasible for…