“May the blessing of Light be on you, light without and light within. May the blessed sunlight shine on you and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat fire, so that the stranger may come and warm himself at it, and also a friend.” — Old Irish Blessing from the book, Irish […]
Feb 17, 2014
Of Presidents and Trees
By · 2 Comments
Presidents’ Day–no mail, banks closed in memory of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I wonder, today, how many will think of the contributions to our country these two men made? Or, to how many will it mean only banks closed, no mail? In time, how many will remember that George Washington was born on February […]
Feb 16, 2014
Caves, Chills, and Deep, Dark Caverns
By · Leave a Comment
Sometimes I am amazed at how our idea of entertainment has changed through the years. We depend on others to amuse us: movies, plays, music, TV, the list goes on. What would we do if we had to resort to our own ingenuity for diversion? It was a question that didn’t arise for my mother […]
Feb 6, 2014
A Home-Style Love
By · Leave a Comment
For some reason, homemade food seems to taste better on cold winter days. Hot soup, a pot roast, fresh-baked cookies, all of these warm the heart and the tummy. They are ways to say, “I love you” without actually saying a word. Following is an excerpt from the Etta Bend Book of Devotions: “The lines […]
Jan 29, 2014
The January Thaw
By · Leave a Comment
In the days when my grandparents, Levi and Edna Latty, were on their 300+ acre farm at Etta, Pappy Latty always looked for the January thaw, those few January days when winter paused to take a deep breath and remember that spring would soon be on its way. During the January thaw, Pappy would hitch […]
Jan 18, 2014
Etta Bend Devotional–Tep Willis
By · 3 Comments
Etta Bend Devotional January 18–“Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store” (Deuteronomy 28:5). My great-grandmother, Catherine Serepta (Tep) Barker Willis, was an outdoors person as was my grandmother and my mother. I can picture her now, wearing a long-sleeved blouse (she would have called it “waist”) and long skirts that reached the tops of […]
