Our family has the tradition of lighting Advent candles on the Sundays before Christmas, then readingĀ Scripture. The soft glow of the candle is peaceful and silent but it reflects a powerful message of hope and love. I wish that our world would stop for a moment and absorb this quietness and peace. Doesn’t Scripture […]

One Woman’s Junk
·Yesterday, I dusted my furniture. The wood of piano, tables, bureau, all looks bright and shiny. Why do I put off this chore, since I enjoy the dust-free furniture so much? I’ll tell you–it’s moving the stuff I have sitting on top. Many people would look at all the small objects and wonder why I […]

Growing Older
·I have a sun dial in my flower garden. On it is an inscription from a poem by Robert Browning, “Grow Old Along With Me; The Best Is Yet To Be.” I’ve always liked that line. I suppose Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a wonderful marriage and did grow old together. Some […]

The Mystery of Good and Evil
·Moonlight Can Be Murder. is a book of contrasts: friendship and distrust, love and hate, danger and safety, light and darkness. Ned and her friends Pat and Jackie decorate Granger’s Mansion for Christmas with red ribbons and candles, flames leap up Ned’s fireplace casting flickering shadows on the wall, Jackie plans a Christmas party, and […]

A Little Cedar and a Big Storm
·Fierce winds tugged at Little Cedar. His scrawny boughs bent and swayed but he dug his roots deeper and hung onto the rock buried beneath the mountain soil. “The wind is so cold,” said Little Cedar. He shivered from his topmost limb to the bottom of his twisted trunk. “It must be nearly Christmas […]

Somewhat Less Than True
·We need a good falsehood, told in interesting prose, harmful to no one, and recognized as less than true. It’s a fact–we need fiction. Facts, or what passes as facts, bombard our eyes and ears. We grow tired of it. We need escape. We pick up a book of fiction, find a world different from […]