I love this time of year when we look for light to pierce the darkness and bring hope to our troubled world. And this year seems fraught with so many troubles. There's something magnificent and holy about holiday lights, especially as we think of them heralding the birth of the Lord, the light of the world. One of my favorite hymns is "The Lord is My Light." My children know it's supposed to be sung at my funeral. When I searched for an arrangement to share with you, I quickly learned of a different hymn from the one I know (with the same title). Here's an arrangement performed by selected Tem ..read more

I started my first book club in Houston in 1987 as a young mother of a one year old and a three year old. I refused to become like women I knew who would regretfully say, "I haven't read a book since I had children." The next ten years found me reading books and gathering monthly with a delightful group of friends. We moved to the Seattle area in mid-1997.  Within a few months, I launched another book club in 1998. We celebrated a landmark year, twenty-five years together, in Austin this past weekend. Twelve of us gathered, but we missed many who have been part of our group over the years ..read more

It's easy to think of fall as a time of decay and death when nothing happens. Fran's topic of renewal encouraged me to look at Bible verses that speak of renewal giving me a changed attitude to this time of year. "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2, New International Version In Ephesians 4. we are taught to no longer be children, to put off our former selves. and to grow up unto Christ in all things. Wow! That's a task that is ..read more

The October prompt for our memoir writing group came from my friend Coleen: “Get a book in your hands. Anybook. Close your eyes. Open the book to any random page. Point anywhere on the page and open your eyes. See what your finger is pointing to and from that, do free association to start writing. The idea is that prompts can truly come from anywhere :)”        I tweaked Coleen’s prompt a bit by picking up four different books and pointing randomly to a line on the page. I settled on these lines from the poem, “Anna, a Prophetess,” from th ..read more

I’m in a memoir writing group. Last month, Shannon invited us to write our very own By The Book interview (like they do with authors in the NYT Book Review). I didn’t get mine written because I was having too much fun in Oklahoma at my 50th high school reunion. Because it’s almost time for another month’s prompt, I’m answering Shannon’s questions for my slice of life this week. I probably could have answered one question per slice, but I need to catch up and be ready for the next  prompt.   What books are on your night stand?  The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger (jus ..read more

It's Spiritual Journey Thursday, an open gathering for bloggers who write monthly about our spiritual journeys. This month's theme is A Glad Heart. This post was complete and while trying to figure out Inlinkz, I lost all of it. So here I go again!  I chose the theme of a glad heart and then tweaked it a bit to incorporate my OLW for 2023, gather. One of my favorite poems is Mary Oliver's, "When I Am Among the Trees." I'll share the first stanza, but you can read the entire poem in Devotions: Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (p. 123). "When I am among the trees,  especially the willow ..read more

 I've been home for a week and I'm still basking in the glow of our 50 year high school reunion. It was a blessing to see so many friends from my years in elementary school, junior high, and high school. I grew up in McAlester, a small town in southeastern Oklahoma. There were 290 of us in our graduating class. The memorial slide show honored 90 classmates who have died. That's way too many of us.  I know that coming to a reunion is hard for some in our class. I talked long and hard to one particular classmate to convince her to join us. I appreciate each and every person who came, e ..read more

Patricia Franz  is hosting this month's Spiritual Journey Thursday   with her post, Life at the Speed of Grace. Feel free to join us  in responding to Patricia's invitation. I was touched by Patrice's post that spoke of Grace as her shorthand for God. She shared these encouraging words and spoke of "learning to live life at the speed of Grace, letting God catch me surprise me, love me, right where I am." In a world that is filled with frenzy and frenetic action, we can sense grace (God) by slowing down. I literally felt the slowing down, the surrender to peace in Patrice's ..read more

Thanks to Mary Lee and Jone, two dear Poetry Friday friends, who jiggled my memory about today being my day to host Poetry Friday. Two of the grand boys are here this morning, so between creating apple O's and C's for morning snack, I grabbed this favorite anthology from the bookshelf to share with you on this first day of September! This one was a favorite in my classroom, so I finally purchased my own copy. A delightful anthology compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins, it's filled with favorites. Check it out, you'll love it too! It opens with "School Bus" by Lee Bennett Hopkins. Grandson Jack is ..read more

It's been awhile since I showed up for Slice of Life Tuesday. We arrived in North Carolina on Friday, July 21. We stayed with our daughter's family until our truck arrived on Saturday, July 29.  We had a busy week unpacking and getting partially settled in before I went to Utah to be with the grands while their mom was on a girlfriends' getaway to southern California (which included a Taylor Swift concert in LA). It was a delight to be with the grands and their dad. We baked a little, read a little, and played a little.   A perfect little visit before it was back to the unpa ..read more