When we remodeled our house, a stately 50-foot walnut tree stood in the way of our blueprint. It was perfect: straight, tall, and beautiful. We did everything to keep it, but in the end, the grand plan dictated that it had to be cut down. The tree became a distinctive mantel for our home. ...
In grad school, my husband and I rented a duplex near campus that had some interesting carpet. It had a motif of a flaming B in a repeated diamond pattern. The rent fit our budget, and not that into decorating at the time, we didn’t think too much about it. A few weeks into a ...
My dad is a fearless guy. And the most resilient person I know. But he’s also the most intelligent human being I’ve ever met. Sorry, grad school professors and transplant surgeons. He’s got you whipped. With such good genes, I thought by this age, I’d surely know everything. But the older I get, the ...
In the waiting room of my doctor’s office recently, I saw a woman reading a bible who looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t place her. Then her husband came out to meet her, and I remembered right away. He had been in cardiac rehab with me nearly three years ago. He was the ...
Decades ago, my older, now-engineer brother constructed a complete, intricate N-scale model train. It was more than a train. It was an entire city. My brother and dad worked on that plywood platform, the size of a banquet table that resided in our unfinished basement, all the years I was growing up. It was assembled with ...
A few years ago, pre-heart-failure, we took a trip to Buenos Aries, Argentina, to visit our son who was studying abroad. Arriving with limited expectations and very little savvy, we somehow stumbled into booking a trip to Iguazu Falls. I had never heard of it, but learned it is one of the New Seven Wonders ...
A total lunar eclipse turned the moon blood red on July 27. This hour and a half long wonder was witnessed in the Eastern Hemisphere: Europe, Asia, Africa. It was the longest lunar eclipse of this century. We couldn’t see it in North America, wouldn’t have known anything about it centuries ago. But it did happen. Although ...
There were three of us in our congregation desperately ill at the same time: Liz, Lora, and Lori. None of us saw it coming. All of us thought we’d beat it when it did arrive. We are all believers. We all had hundreds of people praying for us. We all have husbands and children who ...
A thought that has been distinct in my world the last few years mirrors the story of a child frightened to sleep alone in her room. Her worn-out mom reassured her, “Have you tried praying? Jesus is always with you. Don’t you believe that?” The little girl replied, “Sure, I do. But right now I ...
Kansas heat can kill farm animals if they run out of water. So in third grade, I was given the job of watering the hogs twice a day during the summer. Everyone else was in the field or working in town. I was honored to have a job that carried so much weight, that Dad ...
