“Unity” is a word I’ve been hearing on the news a lot lately, ever since President Biden, in his inaugural address, called for unity between political parties. So far, however, it hasn’t been working out too well. Before we can achieve unity, or agreements of any kind, I think there are a few other words we need to put into practice – as individuals and groups, as well as communities and governments. I also think we need – if I may paraphrase a line from [...]
It all started while my sisters and I were trying to set up a Zoom call last Sunday. As we texted our schedules back and forth, trying to work around meals and football games, one sister mentioned she needed a little extra time for dinner because she had potatoes to mash. My other sister responded that she never mashes potatoes anymore, she just boils them. So of course I had to add that I make mashed potatoes only two or three times a year, but [...]
I had a Zoom meeting a few days ago with other members of a neighborhood club I belong to. The main item on the agenda – other than just touching base and catching up with each other – was voting to elect a new treasurer, since our previous one had to resign due to health issues. After the vote, our new treasurer shared the story that when interviewing for her first job, she had to take a number of tests on various subjects at the [...]
I think it was Erma Bombeck who said, “Mother’s Day is the day on which the family gathers together to thank their mom for everything she does – like cook a big Mother’s Day dinner for everyone.” Actually, Mother’s Day is a day on which many families traditionally take Mom out for brunch or dinner, so she doesn’t have to cook. But there’s nothing traditional about Mother’s Day this year. Most restaurants around the country are still closed, or unavailable for in-house dining. Travel is [...]
My weekly project last week was tackling one of the shelves in my office closet – the one that holds, among other things, notebooks, binders, and workbooks from some of the many classes I’ve taken over the years. Most of them have to do with writing or professional speaking, and I haven’t really looked at them in a long time. In a way, going through them was like looking at old scrapbooks or photo albums. In another way, it was a bit like looking in [...]
I always enjoy being shown a whole new way of looking at something that’s old, familiar, and ingrained. That happened to me recently with the story of the Prodigal Son. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the Biblical parable about a wealthy man whose younger son asked for his share of his father’s estate, then left town and squandered it all. When he returned home, humble and ashamed, his father welcomed him back with open arms and a big celebration – which didn’t [...]
We’re back now from our Christmas travels, and enjoying the glow and the memory of several gifts we received that were better than anything we could have imagined. The best gift was that for the first time in many years we were able to spend the Christmas holiday with both of our kids at the same time. This has been pretty much impossible ever since they grew up and started jobs, lives, and families of their own, and even more so since one of them [...]
“I thought I knew every Elvis song there was,” my sister wrote the other day. But she had heard one that was new to her, although it was the choir at her church that was singing it. The song was “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” and the chorus goes, “Walk a mile in my shoes. Walk a mile in my shoes. Before you abuse, criticize and accuse, walk a mile in my shoes.” This isn’t a new idea, and it wasn’t a new idea [...]
We were sitting in the office of the Executive Director of St. Luke’s Hospital in the Nebbe District of northern Uganda, along with the Medical Director and several other department heads. Our main reason for being there was that our organization, Pathways to Hope Africa, is working with a medical equipment company in the States that is donating medical supplies and equipment to the hospital, where it is desperately needed. St. Luke’s is in one of the poorest districts in the northwest Nile region of [...]
“So—Are you retired, too, or are you still working?” A lot of people have asked me that in the year and a half since my husband retired and we moved to Georgia. And I’m never sure what to say. For one thing, I’ve done freelance work for a number of years, and it’s the kind of work I can do from anywhere. All I really need are a phone and a computer. And, of course, clients. How actively I want to pursue acquiring clients is [...]
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