“The thoughtful little things you do each day have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows.” Alexandra Stoddard Giving has nothing to do with how big our bank account is or how easily we can charge large amounts for the following month’s sorrow. It’s a fine art that takes practice to develop. I suppose…
As our world becomes smaller so also can our hearts and minds—for the good, pulling us all together, and for the bad. The good: It was towards the end of October, 2018, two months after Bill’s retirement, when we got our first nudge towards forming a new path. During a Sunday service, two young women…
No More Keep Away! is a short writing I wrote years ago, sharing how Bill and I first met. It was published in a Chicken Soup for the Soul about couples in love. On this Love Day we can’t limit its parameters. Love takes many forms through unlimited relationships with family, friends, colleagues, mentors and…
So much has happened since the last update: we spent the last few weeks in Chicago with Bill’s physical therapy each weekday, received the call my other brother had died, packed and moved back to Arkansas. Since July 17, Bill’s life has been flipped into another realm. For all the decades he was focused on…
I wrote the following last week and just now getting it posted. Life is busy. I’m planning another later this week since Bill starts his work with robotics therapy today. We’re curious as to what that is and how long it will last. It’s been 12 weeks since Bill’s accident. From Lisbon to Chicago, so…
Your world’s not falling apart, it’s falling into place … “Just Be Held” by Casting Crowns There’s an incongruity in those words, I thought, the first time I heard them sung. For all the ways Bill falling off a 9-foot ledge made our lives seem to be falling apart, is there truth that our lives…
The Portugal Path was meant to be a long one for Bill and me. Yet, what do we know about our futures? Especially in these times? First, a quick update on Bill: He has been at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in Chicago since his medical evacuation flight Monday, August 3. The physical therapy team…
We will praise Him in the storm. Forgive the length of time from the last update: We’ve been in a storm, like the one I experienced coming from Amsterdam Tuesday with the plane hovering over NYC’s JFK, only to be diverted to Detroit. Storms have a way of tossing us about and then cutting off…
Right after the pandemic hit and we were in lock-down in Lisbon, I had written to Shannon (our home church’s global mission director and daughter in Christ), We are living in a surreal cocoon, preparing for a new world and praying for a new world. I would have forgotten those words had Shannon not echoed…
Please pray for my Bill. Friday morning he went to the school—GLCA—to do some power washing on the outside. The short story is he fell off a ledge about six feet. I’ll share more details later when time allows. Two hospitals later, with a surgery late Friday night, we were told the surgeon put a…
This story begins with a black and white fur ball, a howling, meowing, fit-in-the-palm-of-your-hand kind of kitten, whose tiny bruised nose once pink has a gash trailing a mysterious path. “We’ll name him Einstein,” my husband Bill said with the force of one christening a ship, “because he was smart enough to survive the woods…
Bill and I love America. We often say how grateful we are we were born in a land with endless opportunities and freedoms … which is why we simply didn’t choose to move to another country. With hindsight though, God has been preparing us over the years, through the little things for the large. But…
I thought I was funny. Many times I projected a thought for others’ enjoyment. They’d laugh. Thus, I figured I was funny. When someone didn’t laugh, I simply surmised my tongue-in-check dry wit didn’t translate. That is until recently. Husband Bill had read a book about enneagram personalities. Upon more research on the trusty internet,…
Imagine the scene: a big blue bowl filled with popcorn is placed in front of Elizabeth Ann, who is all of three-years old. Sandwiched between Bill and me on our king-size bed, Elizabeth’s head is angled my way. She watches me while I pick-out one kernel of popcorn at a time, savoring each morsel, only…
I got a pair of Kate Spade Keds in May and let them be one of my birthday gifts. I typically don’t feel the need to shop the name brands, and I’m pretty sure Bill paid an extra thirty or so dollars for the silver spade emblem placed on the shoes’ heels. My justification? The…
The Art of Lovely Living: 