Grounds for Humility

Surplus Vases.  Contingency Planning: The Coward’s “Virtue”“We need another vase,” I said to my sister-in-law. “I’ll poke around and see what I can find.” I scanned the cabinets in her mother-in-law’s kitchen, looking for a vessel that we could commandeer to hold flowers.   There. That glass pitcher will do.  Hmmm. We can use that […]


My Lunch With the Clowns, 2002

Cadence and Ayden, Clowning Around. January, 2012. A Peculiar Blindness I knew exactly where to find the vendors’ lounge at the Los Angeles County Fair. After all, we’d had a booth there for several years. Sure, we’d moved to a new building this year, but all four exhibit halls were identical, right? Or so I […]


No Photos: Be and Do, A Both/And Week

The First Grandboy Overnighter. Ayden, 5, and Cadence, About-to-Turn 3. September, 2009. The Incredible Sweetness of Being, Part TwelveI put my camera away the last time we had grandsons under our roof. Not because the camera was broken. Not because I don’t adore pictures of our grandchildren. Not because I think I have enough photos of […]


My Tongue Still Smolders

I’d Like My Speech to be This Beautiful. The Taming of My Tongue, Part TwoIf you’ve been reading here for a while, you might remember the tale I shared back in March about my bout with thrush, of all things, and how it helped me work on a sinful habit: unkind speech. [Yes, I know […]


Laura’s Last Lesson

The Gazebo at Our Church. In Loving Memory of Laura Lane Barnett. March 4, 1922 – July 31, 2012 On Easter Sunday, 2011, we attended sunrise services held in our new little church’s mountaintop parking lot, right in front of the gazebo.  An elderly couple—the oldest in our congregation—sat beside us. His name was Dr. […]