Keeping up
"’I didn't know what twerking was, so I had to research it.’ –mom” (Twerking: a combination of the words ‘twist’ and ‘jerk’ - widely associated with hip hop in the U.S.) During my visit to Dallas this past fall, my son David and I stopped for coffee. Our...
Choosing Joy
As the season’s first major ice and snowstorm swept across the country this past weekend, our dogs mirrored the concern and exuberance that accompanies such natural events. When I opened the kitchen door to Sunday ‘s early morning ice pellets, Heathcliff stopped in...
Life Expectancies
“I wish I’d been born in the 19th century,” I told my father one day in my far-past adolescence. “It is my favorite time in history.” In my teenaged mind, the 19th century in the United States elicited thoughts of romance and realism, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams...
Five Senses
See, hear, touch, taste and smell – the five senses help us experience the world. According to longevity studies, a quality life involves five different senses: physical, intellectual, spiritual, a close community of family and friends and the greater community –...
An American Childhood
A couple of Saturdays ago, I attended the Women’s Book Club at Bethany Lutheran Church in Waynesboro, Virginia. Only a foursome, but discussion was lively in part because of the book, Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood. I had read Dillard’s essay “Total Eclipse”...