I love me some Freddy Buechner, a Presbyterian pastor with a knack for turning a phrase. The smallest acts of kindness, even circumscribed within our own families, can, as Buechner says, "set the whole thing trembling." Kindness can change the world. Listen to how Buechner puts it: "Humanity is like an enormous spider web, so […]

I heard a poem yesterday … or I should say, a part of a poem. I am not sure who the author of the poem was. I am not even sure I have the phrase right. Nonetheless, I have been captured by its truth, this little, potentially misquoted, phrase: "Lord, most of what I love […]

A poem for the New Year, by Maya Angelou … Continue My wish for you is that you continue Continue To be who and how you are to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness Continue To allow humor to lighten the burden of your tender heart Continue In a society dark with […]

I have been thinking a lot about time lately. How slow time can crawl in some circumstances---waiting in line, listening to a boring concert or speech, holding one's breath awaiting a test result. How quickly time can fly in other circumstances---coffee with a great friend, looking at your adult kids' faces and wondering how they […]

"You used to be much more… muchier. You've lost your muchness." So said The Mad Hatter to Alice in the great novel, Alice in Wonderland. I feel that quote all the way down to the marrow of my bones! I used to be much more ... muchier! I fell off the radar for weeks (months?), […]

I worked in the gardens until sweat poured down my face. It was one of those sultry August weekends in Iowa that makes us all flee inside to avoid wilting. Though tempted to sip iced tea in the air conditioning, my gardens called to me. It is that time of year when my flamboyant, showoff-y […]