Many of you will remember seeing old western movies with store buildings that had false fronts, making them appear much larger than they were. Let me tell you that people have false fronts too, sometimes without even being aware that they have them. For example, how many of you may be a secret cozy mystery […]

The Comfort of Well-Chosen Words
My mother has been gone for more than twenty years; yet, I miss her every day, even now. When the grief of her passing was new and I felt wounded and sore, I sought and found comfort in words: the words of friends, words in the Bible and other books. I found relief from pain in […]

That Dangerous State of Affairs, Retirement
Retirement–that longed-for Utopian state for which I worked for decades. Lovely, unhurried mornings, peaceful, sunny days of travel, visiting coffee shops. Plenty of time for cleaning a house and keeping it sparkling, baking cookies, taking long walks. And, oh, my goodness, all that accumulated wisdom. Just a whole headful of good advice gleaned from years of […]

Memories–In the Past or Always With Us?
The morning sky is a quiet, pale blue/gray with rosy tints around the horizon. It is deceptively beautiful because it is deadly cold. I remember other January days when I was a child and the sense of excitement and adventure a new year brought. I remember bacon sizzling in the skillet, breakfast with Mom, Dad, […]



