My husband and I went on a trip to Colorado last fall. This was my first visit to that state, outside of the Denver airport. I was excited to see the changes in topography as we traveled along. We left the lush, green hills and clear, sparkling rivers of southwest Missouri, discovered the endless beauty in the flat plains of Kansas, and slowly crept up into the high plains of eastern Colorado where I spotted the first antelope I had ever seen in the wild. Continue reading The Balance of Nature
Quite possibly the best thing my oldest daughter, Dayton, has ever sent me is this picture of a domestic cat wearing a lion’s mane. Yeah…I’m easy to please. But just look at him there – wearing that mane like it’s just what he’s supposed to do. His eyes flash with confidence. He’s not the least bit unsettled. He’s not confused about who he is – there’s no identity crisis here. He’s a cat, and he knows it. He also knows he hails from the same biological family as the King of the Jungle. And so he dons the synthetic mane with pride and conviction of who he is on the inside. Continue reading The Lion Inside
The year my mother and brother died, we decided to have a big ole family Christmas at my parents’ house. Everyone would be there from my mom’s side of the family. We even decided to draw names and exchange gifts. My mom and brother had only died 23 days apart from each other. It started in October, so we were all still very raw and pretty much going through life like zombies. Continue reading Life is Like a Chocolate Pie
On a recent trip to my local grocery store, I spent way too much time trying to find the fly swatters. It is summer, and a few of those pesky little critters found their way into my house. I finally stopped to ask a gentleman employed by the store if he knew where I could find a fly swatter.
He turned to me and asked, “A what?”
“A fly swatter,” I replied.
Now, the gentleman crept a few steps closer to me, and inquired again, “A what?”
I thought maybe the man was slightly hard of hearing, so I answered again, “A fly swatter”. This time I could see on his face that it wasn’t that he couldn’t hear me…he couldn’t understand me. Very quickly I added, “Fly swatter…F. L. Y. swatter”.
Touchdown! I realized the gentleman finally knew what I was saying.
“Oh…a fly swatter! With your accent, I couldn’t understand what you were saying,” he proceeded to explain as he led me to the item. Continue reading Sometimes You Feel Like the Fly – Sometimes You Feel Like the Swatter
Oftentimes, my husband asks me things like this:
“What do you want to do this evening?”, “Where would you like to eat?”, “Would you rather go to the movies or stay in tonight?”.
My answers are usually something along these lines:
“Whatever you want to do”, “Wherever is fine with me”, “Doesn’t matter to me”.
These types of responses are not what he would like to hear most of the time. However, they are actually the truth. I don’t care what we are doing, I just want to be with him. Being with him is enough for me. It’s not about what we are doing…it’s that we are together. That’s the prize for me – simply being with him. Continue reading In The Presence of God
Right now, I want you to think of the most beautiful wedding you have ever attended or seen pictures of. Maybe it was your own, but for me…I always picture the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Continue reading Gone With the Whim
It is a natural response to want to defend yourself. I don’t mean physically, like from a shark attack (good luck with that), or with a shield and sword. I’m talking about defending your character, your reputation, your religion, your political ideology, your sense of direction. Continue reading What Would Jesus Do?
I secretly loved being scared when I was a kid. We’d watch the old monster movies – Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, Werewolf – they were awesome, and provided just enough fear to give you a thrill. When I got a little older, the movies got a little scarier. To get to my best friend Julie’s house, I had to travel down a stretch of road where some large, old trees hovered over the street. There were very few street lights in this part of town, and it was pretty eerie. Julie and I were always a bit apprehensive about traversing this stretch to reach the house at the end of our destination – if it was dark. At some point, we convinced ourselves that we were perfectly safe…as long as we didn’t hear the theme music from Friday the 13th. You know…the dreaded, “Che che che che che. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.” Continue reading Satan’s Secret Weapon
I was raised near the South Canadian River in a small town in Oklahoma. My family spent a lot of time on that river, noodling and swimming and searching for morels. I have always understood the power of its raging waters after the spring floods. A fact that was made all too clear to me when my brother, Robin, took me with him one day to hunt for arrowheads. There had just been a heavy rain, and he knew this was a great time to find them. Farmers had just plowed their fields for the spring planting, and the rain would help expose any treasure we sought. Continue reading He Will Come to Us Like the Rain
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