Do you have a nickname? Some nicknames follow given names, like Suzy from Suzanne, but I’m talking about pet names given by people who love us. My mother bestowed two…
suzannedmarshall
I shuffle papers until motion out the windows draws my attention. Our new dog, Diggity, races alone around the yard like a rodeo dog. He scoops up a toy…
Ash Wednesday came and went yesterday. Some may wonder why I haven’t written anything about Lent this year. I feel like I’ve been in a season of Lent since this time…
“What is wrong with you today?” My young son yanked toys from his siblings, argued about games and groused all day. After hours of struggling to control the situations, I…
“Are you ready for the holidays?” My doctor asked by way of greeting. “Mostly, I guess.” He quickly followed up, almost cutting me off. “All the activity for one day,…
The long awaited Friday arrived for my first backpacking trip. The responsibility for our parents had passed into God’s hands. My gimp foot was repaired, and I built endurance…
Back to the Future or Forward to the Past?
I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press…
Touching the Tops of Trees
What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested,…
You’ll never believe what lay on my doorstep this morning. I might have stepped on her if not for the contrasting yellows and greens that she wore. It was Tina…
A sand piper needling the sand trots in a fast staccato along the edge of the gulf’s waters. With uncanny intuition he gauges the breaking and receding waves, scuttling…
Bird’s-Eye View
It’s the strangest thing to step out the back door with mowers thrumming in the neighborhood and motorcycles zipping on the interstate a mile away then to spot a dark…
I relax into a beach chair while in the water my husband straddles a surfboard waiting for waves. The beach and the floor of the gulf in our region are…