3 Reasons Sudden Loss Hits Us So Hard

The sudden loss of my young friend Rachel this past Saturday night (see my previous post) made me think about a sudden loss of my own.  Five years ago this same weekend, we arrived home from Sunday morning church to a phone message from my brother-in-law, saying there was a family emergency and we should [...]

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God, How Could You Do That?

I just finished a post on acting on belief. Now the rubber meets the road.
A week ago yesterday, I read with joy that a friend, a young mom, and her husband had welcomed their third child, a little girl, into the world. I can remember watching with a smile and a warm heart the video [...]

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My Life as an Activist

The first time I think I ever did anything that could be considered “activist”, in the commonly understood sense, was back in the 80’s.  When the opportunity presented itself, I joined with a group of up to maybe ten people who peacefully picketed the local abortion clinic one Saturday morning a month.  We carried signs [...]

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Look into My Eyes

“Look at my eyes.”  I’d be on my way to Alaska or Ireland (dream destinations requiring funding) if I had a dollar for every time I’ve said that to a child or student of mine.  We ask for that focused attention when what we desire to communicate really matters.
While standing before the mirror with electric [...]

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Can We Weep on Facebook?

The resident teenager says, “Mom, you take Facebook comments way too seriously.” Not exactly sure why he says that–I operate under the assumption that my Facebook friends (most are age peers) are not that much into sensationalism (with the possible exception of Andy ) and, thus, will state their activities and their hearts [...]

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Holding Back the Rant

In my quest to become a freelance professional book indexer, I registered for my next indexing class yesterday. At the USDA Graduate School site where I needed to sign up, things had changed since the last class I took. In fact, there was one of those “pardon our dust” kinds of notices there [...]

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Second Time Around

It just dawned on me sometime in the last week–we are going through those teenager years again.  (For those who may not know our family so well, I say “again” because our older children are 25 and 23,  so we’ve already walked through their adolescent years.)  Granted, Zach turned 16 in February, so on the [...]

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