“That’s what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.” ~Walt Disney When I heard Walt Disney’s quote in the movie Saving Mr. Banks a few weeks ago, I knew that he had hit upon a powerful truth. Little did I realize at the time […]
Faith Based Schooling
One day I shared with my university professor father the name of a religious text I was using in my homeschool, and my dad snorted in disgust. “Use books with real material, for God’s sake!” The I-couldn’t-shoot-through-it-with-a-laser-gun irony was not lost on me. After all, every choice I made in my homeschooling […]
Love’s Fire
Last evening, my kids gathered on a far section of our land. We traipsed across a rickety bridge over our ever-widening creek to reach it. Sheltered by old-growth maples, full of tall grass, vines, and brambles, it’s a wild bit of land. The kids worked hard to clear a space […]
Remember
The wonder of a child’s stare, As once we climbed a tree on dare. The humming, buzzing bee, Ourselves did marvel at flurry-wings see. Sharp green apples snatched, High branches, contentment wrapped. Unleashed from class, Homeward dash. Friends to play, Blazing trails to stray. Holiday fun-arranged, Presents-exchanged. Growing, planning, hoping, […]
So Loved the World
Christmas—the birth of God as human being. What a concept! For my kids’ generation, I have to translate it in terms of an alien coming to Earth, revealing Himself as the seed of human origin. We are more likely to believe in aliens than angels these days. But, be that […]
For Me?
God’s birth comes in many forms… An old woman and her sandwich saved my life. Not that I was starving. I wasn’t. In fact, I hadn’t had an appetite in three days. Moreover, I had no wish to live. She didn’t know that. But, still, she wouldn’t let me die. […]
A Future I Can Count On
The future bewilders me. I never know what’s next. I should be used to that by now. But no. I make a plan and then watch it swirl into oblivion shortly after my first sip of morning coffee. Since I’m off much of social media, I have more time. So, […]
Come Out of the Cold
Stupid mistakes left Trix cold. Her own especially. Who on planet Earth was responsible for spelling? And could she find a legal precedent for killing the nameless perpetrators outright or would it have to be a clandestine affair? Though surely, she’d had a good portion of the world’s fifth-graders in […]
Head for Shore
The lake before me runs at an even pace with ripples breaking against the rocky, wooded shoreline. November trees adorned with crumpled, brown leaves shiver in a cold breeze. Evergreens standout, their pine branches waving as if to salute distant friends who never get any closer. This should be a […]