In every direction, a mountain range graces the Irish skyline. The ancient peaks are rounded and clothed with patchwork vests of tan grasses, green forests, and pink heather. Distinct borders set aside each odd shaped patch of color from its neighbor. These borders are built of stones cleared from fields and stacked vertically, or more …
On my walk this morning, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Gorgeous pansies, a deep velvety purple suitable for a king’s robe, as well as yellow ones with faces of pure sunshine, and orangey-red ones withered in a heap on the street. Twice I turned to go back, thinking of scooping up the best and planting …
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 mid-gallop and tosses it in the air, then circles around at top speed to nab it again and carry it to an imaginary finish line, …
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 speck circling overhead. The form is a red-tailed hawk unexpected in this environment, but there he is lazing in curves. His eyesight amazes me. He …
Are your thoughts disorganized from this unexpected and oddly threatening, yet quiet time? The mockingbird seems scattered in his thoughts. He cannot finish a song. He’s so enthralled with one, he belts it out until another distracts his perky little mind, and he quickly switches with as much enthusiasm as he sang the first. I’m …
Mark 10: 46-52 Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, …
Trees, barren of leaves and color, appear dead in winter. Winter that period of waiting, waiting, waiting, with our feet on the edge of despair, willing for life to return when there’s no sign of it. Does life still run underground, bubbling in secret? Weeds have crept over the garden so slowly that I hadn’t …
Advent ponders Jesus first and second comings. Thinking about God coming as a babe makes me smile, but I rarely think about Jesus’ second coming. Usually that comes to mind when I’m weary of politics and violence or my failure to live faithfully. In those instances, I’m eager for “every knee to bow and every …
I mumble when people ask about how Lent is going. I promoted preparing for Easter, but this year I’m bombing it. How could I have allowed Lent to gather lint? God is teaching me this season but not through my Lenten intention as He has in the past. I wrote about His authority over my …
Moving boxes, in addition to dozens of antiques collected over the years, crowded my friend’s living and dining rooms. Half the boxes had been loaded in the rented truck, but still no furniture. I handed a box to Philip, the next person in the box brigade, and I spoke my mind. “We can fit boxes …
A tropical storm is simmering in the Caribbean Ocean, and its forecast track edges westward then eastward but always northward, where I sit at my keyboard. The thought of a hurricane electrifies my mood. On one hand, it’s exciting to anticipate the power that can blow down an oak tree with a girth larger than …
Acting Squirrelly Our breakfast table rests against a wall of windows that look out on the back porch. Each morning a menagerie of birds and squirrels entertain us at the bird feeder hanging off the end of the porch. One morning a young squirrel climbs onto the glider in the breezeway and sits on his …