All Saints Sunday

Yesterday, All Saints Sunday, we walked into the crowded sanctuary at Bethany Lutheran Church in Waynesboro, Virginia. The screen above the pulpit displayed a slideshow of names: church members from the past 200 years who had gone before us: infants, some with only...

Callings

Magazines had piled up: three weeks of New Yorkers, The Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic, The New York Review of Books, Writer’s Chronicle, Smithsonian, Creative Nonfiction, Poets & Writers, and a few education periodicals. I also had several unread e-books...

The Best Yes

As Keith and I walked to the church parking lot after Bible Study last Sunday, I heard a ding and checked my cell phone. “On our way to Gettysburg then Shenandoah Valley. Will txt when one hour away. Beautiful day!” I texted my long-time friend who I hadn’t seen in...

Clothing Memories

In the 50s and 60s, my father dressed like Father Knows Best – baggy trousers and jacket with wide lapels, white shirt (always white), striped necktie, brown socks and indestructible brown leather shoes. He’d stand all six feet four inches with his left hand in his...

Disguises

Saturday late afternoon, my husband and I walked up a friend’s driveway dodging Happy Birthday balloons floating from planters and trees. Her celebration marked another decade, a good reason to throw a party, which she and her husband loved to do. We attended the...