Has autumn’s magical wand swept through your yard yet this year? This past week seems to have brought out the seasonal changing-of-the-guard here where I live. Gold, orange, and red have replaced the green in many of the trees signaling the approach of winter and the intent of the flora around us to sleep. My […]
Flowers
Like Writers, Snails Exist
When I was a leader for my church’s Awana club, I had the privilege of teaching during their evening closing time. One year the director chose to use a compilation of stories that compared the attributes of various creatures with the role they played in God’s kingdom. When my turn came to share, I drew […]
When You Offend Another
This week I made a terrible mistake. The days had been crowded with critiques for my writing group, copy edits that were due to my publisher, a one-day writing conference, and in the midst of it, a reminder that I needed to send out a newsletter to my readers to comply with the new GDPR […]
Happy? Valentine’s Day
Reposted from an earlier entry February 2015– Today, while waiting at an intersection near the university where I live, I studied the faces of the people in the crosswalk. A handful jogged by on their way to the popular running path our city boasts. Others were students, backpacks in place, hurrying to their next class. One […]
Summer Anyone?
As I stood at my kitchen window this week and watched rain pelt my patio and the wind whip the trees, I struggled to remember that the summer solstice is a mere eleven days away. Dubbed the wettest Oregon spring in one hundred years, I marveled at how this season differed from last year. The […]
Mother’s Day Beginnings
Mother’s Day means many things to different people. Most of us view the date as a way to show honor to our mothers, often bestowing gifts and sentiments to them. But, originally, the day began for a very different reason. The observance grew out of a movement known as the Mothers’ Day Work Clubs, designed […]
The Saddest, Gladdest Day
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. 2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the […]
The Dogwood Has Bloomed
The dogwood has bloomed. The tree sits on a corner along the street I follow to get to my bank. Every year I anticipate the arrival of the flowers, waiting for the splash of white blossoms to stir my heart as I hurry down the thoroughfare. Not only is the sight breathtaking, it reminds me […]
Pansy Petulance
Cooler weather, light rain and a long summer behind them, my patio flowers needed pulling this week. I replaced them with the cheery, happy faces of fall pansies. My son, when he was little, thought pansies his favorite flower because they are always smiling. Something about their bearded petals and wrinkled lines that all converge […]
Shadowed Strength
The nasturtiums finished their season this past week. They might have lasted longer, but the incessant heat against the pavement surrounding their planter fried their blossoms. They crumpled like balloons in a volley of darts—leaves, petals, and stems sagging into a lifeless lump on the ground. As I gathered their remains and stuffed the foliage […]