Sunday Inspiration: Comfort Zone
My husband and I are out of our comfort zone right now, traveling to our summer cottage. Chautauqua Institution, where we spend our summers, is a place known for being “at the end of your comfort zone.” As always we’ll hear controversial speakers, talk about difficult issues, listen to concerts we may or may not…
Read MoreReading Challenge: The Great American Read from PBS
Have you ever done something new and exciting, only to discover that everybody else is doing it, too, maybe even before you thought of it? To Read or Not to Read… I started the Read Along With Emilie Richards Reading Challenge for the fun of it after participating in another challenge in 2017. As it…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Graduation
It’s that time of year again. How many of you are participating in or witnessing a graduation this month? There are so many graduations these days, from pre-school to post-graduate. But I find many of the university commencement speeches to be especially inspiring. Here are some of my favorite quotes from this year’s speeches: “College,…
Read MoreNo Good Deeds Go Unpunished?
Have you heard about James and Kimberly Snead? The Sneads are ordinary folks, not rich by anybody’s standards. By their own description in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, they live from paycheck to paycheck and rent their home. When an acquaintance of the Snead’s son was orphaned and had no other place to go, they…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: The Power of Love
Did you see the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? Beautiful, wasn’t it? And different from the usual royal weddings. As a minister’s wife, I liked the passionate sermon by Bishop Michael Curry. His quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was especially inspiring: ‘We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power…
Read MoreThe E in Ebooks Does Not Stand for Effortless
So, do you ever wonder how all those eBooks miraculously appear on your Kindle/Nook/iPad etc.? How hard can independent publishing be, right? I mean other than writing the book, that is. You put down your thoughts, you press a button, and there’s an eBook fully formed on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo,…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Happy Mother’s Day!
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. (And to anyone who has ever helped raise or nurture a child not their own, as well.) Today’s gift to all of us is this moving poem “To The Moms Out There Who Love Someone On the Autism Spectrum,” by Kerry Magro, an autistic man who…
Read MoreWho’s Perching on the Branches of Your Family Tree?
Last year I decided to ask for genetic testing at 23 and Me as a birthday gift. Have you done the 23 and Me test or a similar one, like the one at Ancestry.com? I already knew the basics, but I thought it might be fun to have more specifics. I hoped that something I didn’t…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Reverend Patrick J. Conroy, SJ
This week Reverend Patrick J. Conroy, S.J. resigned from his post as the chaplain for the House of Representatives at the request of Speaker Paul Ryan, and then took back his resignation with these words: “I have never been disciplined, nor reprimanded, nor have I ever heard a complaint about my ministry during my time…
Read MoreReading Challenges 2018: We Are Not Alone
Are you participating in the Read Along With Emilie Richards Reading Challenge? If not, and you want to, you’ll find out all about it here. I promised to post about the challenge on the last Wednesday of every month, but you can see I’m a few days late for April. I’m delighted to say I’m…
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