Spring Cleaning Spring is here… although it’s been pretty mixed up this week. I don’t know about you, but my heater was still coming on on Monday and Tuesday. Nevertheless, according to the calendar, it’s spring. Time to open up the house and let the sunshine in. Time to grab a few dozen trash bags, go through all the closets, and throw away everything that has cluttered up the house. Time for spring cleaning! I am painfully aware that... Read more
A Great Awakening: An Extraordinary Film Last weekend, on the advice of a friend, Marty and I went to see the movie A Great Awakening. I was prepared for a good film with historical content, because that’s what my friend told me. I was not prepared for the emotional journey that we entered into. More than once, with misty eyes I looked over at my tough veteran husband and saw tears on his cheeks. When it was over he said,... Read more
Time Is Honey: Save the Bees! About Honey … and Bees As a child, I was terrified of bees, or anything that would sting; however, I was a big fan of honey. Sweet, sticky honey on pancakes, waffles, French toast, and in hot tea! My grandfather lived to his 100th year and had a peanut butter and honey sandwich every day. He knew a secret–honey has health benefits: Honey contains antioxidants like flavonoids and phenolic acids that may help... Read more
Haiku Poetry Day April 17 If you have ever been in a writing class, or even in a class where your teacher liked writing, you have probably written haiku. I was still pretty young when the simple poetic form was introduced to my class. Haiku is a traditional Japanese form of poetry structured with one 5-syllable line, followed by a 7-syllable line, followed by a third 5-syllable line (17 total syllables), mostly concentrating on a single moment in time or... Read more
The Thrill of the Trilliums A Sign of Spring ‘Tis the season! Spring has finally … hopefully … arrived in the Ohio Valley. On Saturday, Marty and I took a ride through wooded areas around our home to look for trilliums, a special treat each spring. Although trilliums used to cover much of the hillsides on either side of our road, homes have been built and floods have come through, and, sadly, many of our trilliums have disappeared. We did,... Read more
White Squirrel/ St. Clairsville, OH/B. Green Genesis 2:19a: Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. The White Squirrel Phenomenon Walking season has come again, and how I love it! After a long and seriously cold winter, walking on the “trail” in our St. Clairsville home is liberating to the body and soul. Fresh air, flowers, smiling people whose faces one begins to recognize, and wildlife–deer,... Read more
*Disclaimer: I’m in English teacher geek mode: Meet Aurora Leigh: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Prophetess. Aurora Leigh Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 1856 verse novel Aurora Leigh, is an eloquent social and religious statement by an author who is so often anthologized only for her sonnet sequence Sonnets from the Portuguese. You know them: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”–words that are often used as humor. I teach Aurora Leigh as a part of our epic sequence in... Read more
Once in a while, a student composition turns into something unforgettable. It isn’t always because it is a perfect composition. It isn’t always an academically spotless piece of writing. Most of the time, it is because the composition has an important message taught in a way it has not been taught before. That is what happened to me with this one. Natalie’s “Conversation with God” resonated in my spirit long after the grade had been assigned: A Conversation with... Read more
The Lord is My Shepherd: A Grandma Story Several years ago, my 94-year-old, ball-of-fire, Italian grandma taught us all a lesson in faith. She had a number of things wrong with her body and had been living in a nursing home for several years where she could get the expert help she so desperately needed. My mom and dad lived close enough so they could visit her every day. If I can’t say she really did well, I can at... Read more
“I Am Third”: The Legacy of Gale Sayers Sometime around my Sophomore year in high school, my younger brother (avid reader and sports enthusiast) gave me a book to read: I Am Third by Gale Sayers. The title was part of Sayers’ mantra, and it changed my way of thinking about life: “The Lord is first; my friends are second; and I am third.” The Athletic Journey of Gale Sayers Gale Sayers was born on May 30, 1943, in Wichita,... Read more
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