There have been many excellent cooks in my family, including grandmothers, mothers, and our daughter. I know how to cook, but I don’t always follow a recipe. I’ve made a couple hundred meatloaves over the years, and Rick claims they’ve all been good, and all different. He’ll say, “You can’t duplicate that one, can you?” …
I’m thinking about all those beautiful redwoods. Beneath the canopy of trees there is a fight for light and life going on, a constant battle to reach up and receive the light. The one that succeeds lives and thrives. God brought the Light of the World down to us, and any and all who desire …
I may be a native Californian, but I often find myself shaking my head. “Medical marijuana” is being grown all over the place, inside houses and out. My brother lives up in the Green Triangle. Over the past few years, his picturesque little town nestled among the giant redwoods has begun to look like the …
“He (God) has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
Rick and I attended the International Conference on Missions not long ago, and sat in on every session to do with sex trafficking. A friend in ministry told me the crime is increasing in Northern California, and we wanted to find out what we can do to stop it. Frankly, we were shocked to find …
I read 43 books this year. I keep a list and even note whether the book is fiction, non-fiction, a devotional, youth novel or manuscript. I tend not to recommend books because each book I read offers something special that comes through the eyes of another human being. I learn something from everything I read. …
December 26 always finds me in the throes of post-Christmas blues. I don’t want to put away the ornaments and take down the tree. I don’t want to put away the Christmas music, Christmas movies, Christmas books. It’ll be another year before I can bring out the bright red Swedish candlesticks, the Russian nesting dolls, …
This is a hard time of year for many of us. I know I’m not alone when I share that someone we love very much has crashed and burned again. One drink is all it takes. Fear grabs hold of me and I worry. I wake up in the middle of the night and feel …
Rick and I were married on December 21, 1969. Looking back now, I wonder how we could have done such a thing to my parents. A Christmas wedding? Within months after they resettled (in a trailer) and started building (by their own hands) their retirement home in the Applegate Valley of Oregon? I did most …
Shortly after Rick returned from Vietnam, he and I, with his parents, went to a Christmas cinematic presentation of “Ben Hur” in San Francisco. The theater was magnificent, red velvet seats, an enormous screen, all the gilt and glamor of what movie theaters used to be. It was the first time Rick held my hand. …