Stillness: wouldn’t that be lovely? Most of us can barely remember what that feels like. I’m learning a new type of stillness through silence.
If you read my column last month, you know that I committed to a 28-day challenge focused on speaking only sweet, soothing, sound and soft words and eliminating sarcasm, sharp or self-centered [...]
Be Still: Doors and Windows column March 2010
Sweet Lips
I embarked on a journey this month; a journey to sweet lips. Now, unless you have done a word study in your Bible on the word “lips” you may not get where I’m going with this. God’s Book has much to say about the use of our lips, tongue and mouth. One overall statement it [...]
Future Fears
When I was twelve years old, I thought the year 2000 was fiction. I was convinced it was a year that could only exist in a sci-fi movie and it was scary thinking of living in “the space age.” Church people were saying that Jesus would come back before 2000 so we really didn’t have [...]
A perfect government is born
Enemy forces occupied their country. Without notice, raids infiltrated their towns and their children’s blood ran in the streets. Spies mingled among them as they shopped. Life was not safe when they made their way home.
The road was rocky, dusty and long. Transportation was smelly and stubborn, an over-burdened burrow that smelled and clopped along [...]
Window Shopping
Over the past few months I’ve been reading through the Gospels in my Bible. Starting with Matthew, I’ve read a chapter a day with a deliberate desire for God to reveal His Word to me in a fresh, new way.
By the time I reached the last verse of Luke 19, it dawned on me that [...]
Signs
As a child I was fascinated by the road.
We had a station wagon and relatives out west so in the summer we would pack it full and head that way for vacation. I managed to talk my Dad into letting me sit next to him by promising to be still. No problem. My eyes were [...]
Plan B
It was 4:15 p.m. and the cables had been hooked to the ’66 for an hour to no avail. My heart sank. The old girl just wouldn’t stay running.
I assessed all the possibilities of not getting involved, but the marching clock was a cruel dictator and we were just about out of time.
I left my [...]
In Case of Stress: Reach Under Chair
Well, we’re in. My back is killing me, my nerves are frayed and here we are with an echo in our new home. We pared down to essentials and it’s bittersweet. It’s refreshing, like a good, overdue haircut and unsettling, like waking up in your bed at someone else’s house.
Overall, it’s a blessing. I’m the [...]
The Next Chapter
If you study the anatomy of a book, you’ll find its chapters consists largely of suspense, as in, what’s going to happen next? Writers craft words in such a way as to keep that book in your hand so you cannot put it down until the very last word.
I have always [...]
Having Kids
Having children doesn’t always involve diapers and new mommies don’t always have kids. Sounds like I’m heading into a metaphor, doesn’t it? You got me.
To an empty-nester like me, motherhood is all about birthing books. Of course conception is the most fun. A thought, an idea or a dream plays [...]


