Anticipation

“You must be excited about your trip to Scotland,” a friend said to me last week. “To tell you the truth, I haven’t thought about it much,” I said, “which is strange because I’ve been wanting to go for years.” Anticipation. The story goes that Carly Simon wrote her...

Heart, Mind and Body

Early Saturday morning, I parked near the Lake Monocan clubhouse and unloaded the lemon poppy seed bread I’d made that morning, a large bag of trail mix and other materials for the day. It was the annual Women’s Retreat for Bethany Lutheran Church. Spring rains had...

Dogwoods

Cornus florida, the flowering dogwood native to eastern North America, is Virginia’s official state floral emblem and state tree. In spring, dogwoods flower in clusters surrounded by large bracts, which unfold in either white or pink. Tight-clustered fruit, oval red...