This month is Human Trafficking Prevention month, though there should never be a time limit on awareness. ICE reported that 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children (as of May 2024), and more than 32,000 received notice but failed to appear. The notice, of course, does not go to the child, but to the sponsor who was “vetted” …
I have been interested in gladiators since seeing the movie “Spartacus” with my parents in October 1960 at the Golden Gate Cinerama – with the huge wrap-around screen. Years later, I created a gladiatorial character – Atretes, a captive Germanic “barbarian” – in The Mark of the Lion trilogy. It was possible for a gladiator …
It’s that time of year again when we look to the next twelve months and make resolutions. The most common are daily routine (ex: get up earlier), eat healthy, lose weight, save money, quit smoking. Most people (88% according to Google) give up by the end of January. Having had the same problem, I give …
I had a blood test recently and received a list of fascinating results. It got me thinking about how much information we can now obtain from a small sample of our blood. Blood can tell us about specific medical conditions such as heart disease (even a recent heart attack), thyroid disease, cancer, diabetes, sexually transmitted …
Man plans, but God prevails. A few months ago, we thought the Lord was pointing us east to a new location, new home, new adventure. Our daughter and son-in-law wanted us to move in with them so they could be on hand to help us as we needed. We are getting older. Rick has advancing …
Thanksgiving is a time to gather as a family and count our blessings. The one unchangeable truth about life is it can and often does change in a minute. We made plans, and God prevailed. After offering on three homes in small towns near Knoxville, TN, and having each fall through, we got the message. …
The elders of our church used to have a Christmas party each year, and one of the customs was to pass along the prize “white elephant”. It was singing bass you hung on the wall. Any time someone passed by, that fish would sing – loudly. It was good for a laugh at the party. …
We’ve always been aware of skunks in the green space behind our fence. We can smell them as they pass by in the evening or early morning before the sun comes up. Ranger went after one on the trail behind us, but I was able to drag him away from the fence before he got …
It has been a long time since I have sat in an American history class. Decades in fact. We tend to forget, and in some cases, were never taught the providential history of our nation. People often see and judge the past by current culture. We need to push through the curtain of spin to …
Last year, we didn’t harvest our merlot grapes because the degrees BRIX (sugar content) never reached the number we needed. We left the fruit on the vine, much to the delight of our growing rafter of turkeys. I counted twenty-six at one point. This year, we are hoping our “dry grow” grapes will be succulent …