Back Porch Conversations

When Dale and I first met, he was dating a woman in Canada and I was engaged to marry a guy in Virginia. Nevertheless, we found ourselves easy conversationalists despite our prejudices. Mine: 26?! Golly, he’s old. His: Her poor fiancé! We were thrown together over lunch to meet and talk, just an afternoon. Or so we thought. […]
When God Paces You

Last time, I wrote about how God opens up places of uniqueness, peace, and freedom. I want to talk more about each of these. These tell-tale marks of God’s Spirit. The Bible calls these fruits of the Spirit, evidence that this person has walked through seasons with God as their pace car. For the full […]
How Special Do You Need to Be

“Codependency* has no respect for age, color, social standing, or sex.” Anne Wilson Schaef We had just finished a terrific sushi dinner in New York City. We were enjoying a double date with D and his wife who lived in New Jersey. D had helped us find a babysitter, so we could enjoy driving his […]
Pretending to be Peaceful

Sometimes the evil, the largeness of evil, threatens to knock me over. Some days, it seems enormous. You know what I mean. And not just on the world stage, where public trust in words like “public health” is mostly gone. On the daily level, we all have our batch of troubles that deceive us into […]
Big Sur Thanksgiving

Suddenly, summer turns her rosy, hot face on us. When I think of summer I immediately think of warmth, water and travel (at least for us in the northern hemisphere). For those of us in New England this week, we’ve been watching the temperatures climb into the 90’s. So, as we all try to cool […]
Lights on the Road

*In case you missed it: Grand Opening Portrait Contest ends tomorrow, June 2nd (details)* On a long drive from Maryland to New Hampshire, I sat in the front seat of our converted van. I glanced back to check on our boys and saw them reading in their seats. The sun had set and they were […]