In the Philippines, They’re Looking for Us

Please.  We Can Be Hope. We Can Be Help.  Maybe you’ve heard the story that Fred Rogers offered as advice for helping young children cope with frightening  circumstances: When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always […]


Poverty, Dignity, and Peanut Butter Sandwiches

  Last weekend, an earnest, freckled Cub Scout approached me outside our grocery store and asked me to help with his food drive.  He gave me a list of especially-needed food items for the food pantry at South County Outreach and invited me to fill up the special red plastic bag that marked “food drive food.” […]


Dancing Shoes

  These are my dancing shoes. They don’t look much like your child’s dancing shoes, do they? Your child’s dancing shoes are all mirror-shiny patent with taps sparking their soles. Or satiny ballet slippers tied on with long sleek ribbons. But these shoes make me dance, all the same. Where I live, we have this shallow, shallow stream. And […]


Hope, Hunger, and Friendly Sharks

  What Hope Can Do “A friendly shark and an ocean to keep him in.” That’s what grandson Cadence was hoping to receive as a birthday gift  when he was about to turn three.  It’s a wish born of privilege, isn’t it? Thanks be to God, all the things my grandkids hope for are birthed in […]


Bug-Collecting and a Mother’s Heart: Lessons in Compassion

What Hearts Remember I read this amazing story the other day, I say to my mother-in-law. She and I sit in Denny’s, lingering over the last bites of our pecan-banana pancakes. Really?  Yeah. It was a blog post. Your kids caught bugs when they were small, didn’t they? And they brought them home in jars? She nods, […]