Pleasures of Small Museums

What is it about small museums that makes them so special? Now that the official season is over here, Michael and I ventured into Jamestown, New York yesterday with friends to do a little sightseeing before we head back to Florida. Jamestown is a lovely little city, once a furniture manufacturing capital and now, like many northern…

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Reaching Out To Help, Even When It’s Not Comfortable

Recently CBS News had a particularly thought-provoking story, and I’ve included the video here for you to see. There’s a short commercial at the beginning, but it is short. Three years ago members of a gym in Nashville, Tennessee, began to talk among themselves about the slowly disappearing body of another member, a college student named…

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The Season of Giving Thanks

In an hour one of my favorite Christmas Eve traditions begins. Our local public broadcasting radio station will gift local listeners with the Festival of Carols from Kings College in Cambridge. I’m thankful that I will be able to enjoy this lovely choir right here in my own home. In fifteen minutes I will stop for…

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Have a Happy and Memorable Thanksgiving

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. — John Fitzgerald Kennedy If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice. — Meister Eckhart On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence. — William Jennings Bryan…

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How Can We Help?

Once again as we sit in our homes, warm and well fed, our televisions show a different picture of life across the oceans. Right now estimates for loss of life in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan top 10,000. And survivors will have years of rebuilding ahead, as well as picking up the pieces of their…

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The Setting We Never Got to See

Today I’m sharing some photos of my trip to Guatemala, all from our visit to the Chichicastenango in the Highlands on market day. Last week I explained that the trip was research for Endless Chain–just reissued–book two of the Shenandoah Album series. The trip was a bit unusual since I traveled there after the book…

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Which Three Wrongs Would You Right?

By now many of you have had a chance to read One Mountain Away. If you haven’t, an important element of the novel involves Charlotte Hale, the principal character, who is looking back at her life. Charlotte isolates three things she did in the past that she wishes she could change, then she sets about…

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With the Greatest of Regrets, I Cannot . . .

The New Year is a time for resolutions. I bet you made some, right?  Mine were pretty simple. Spend more time exploring my new homes and less time staring at computer screens. Do you think that means less writing? Nah. It just means that I’m going to fill my personal well more frequently, which should…

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See What the Wise Men Started?

Our nation is reeling from the horrifying, senseless killing of children in Connecticut this past week.  Many of us wonder how such a thing could happen, while at the same time we watch the selfless outpouring of love and support from strangers who feel the the tragedy deep inside.  Our sadness is healed in some…

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