Anyone who’s held a newborn gets the subtle reminder that people are born with a fear of falling. Well, maybe newborns don’t actually feel afraid of it (and it’s impossible to ask them), but their grasping reflex suggests that their bodies are built to prevent themselves from a fall. Adults bond with babies through that… Read More
Why Buy Diamonds?
Diamonds. Sparkly. Precious. Tough. Dazzling. Glitzy. And expensive. What makes them the classic gift from a man to a woman they love? And why do women want them? First of all, I don’t actually know if there’s any one answer to this question, but I’m willing to take a stab at it. On the surface,… Read More
Happy Birthday — and Don’t Jump on the Couch
It’s become standard practice for me to leave the house and remind our youngest, now 18 years old, but still a teenager with bad ideas, not to jump on the couch. It’s a joke. It’s said with a smile. Though I can’t be certain, I’m pretty sure he never does jump on the couch and… Read More
Reading Tea Leaves
Learn anything new from your cup of tea lately? I did. Two winters ago, in an attempt to keep my resolution to spend more time with God, I grabbed a hot… Read More
Pandemic Projects: Backyard Gardening
In all of the fifteen Junes that I have lived in this house I have never had as much time to offer to gardening as I do this year. The attention that the yard has been given already in this 2020 gardening season is likely more than all prior years combined. Pandemic isolation does have… Read More
CHRISTMAS PAST
What’s your best Christmas memory? What year was the happiest Christmas for you? As I think about my own answer, I recognize the challenge this presents. I’ve had 48 Christmases so far. Which one was the best? That’s hard to say. It certainly had to be before anyone in my life ever died. It was also before divorce. It was before I equated… Read More
ALL OF SUMMER IS A STAIRCASE
For those of us who work in education, summer is a time of freedom, of dropping routines and lesson plans in favor of spontaneous trips to the water, or barefoot walks on hot pavement in the rain, or lunches at restaurants with outside seating — tanned skin, no make up. For all of us, July… Read More
DOES GOD TEXT?
I keep my iPhone at my fingertips through most of my waking hours, and it’s near me through the night as well. I leave it on the sink top while I’m in the shower. I put it on the car charger while I’m driving. It’s on the couch next to me while we Netflix in the living… Read More
A WHALE OF A PROBLEM
My Mom and my brother and my daughter all have this make-it-look-easy ability to draw. They can imagine things and sketch them. t’s really cool. And when they’re done, people know what it is. That’s not my gift. As an ESL teacher, I often draw on the board to explain ideas to students, but I never see improvement from… Read More
ESTABLISHING MY STEPS
In the summer of 2015, I decided to tear out the carpeting on my staircase. I checked out Do It Yourself videos on youtube and figured I could handle the task on my own. I got straight to work, anxiously aware that projects like these can’t get fully accomplished unless I start and finish them… Read More