My freshman year, the egg in a bottle experiment was banned from the science fair. Overused and unoriginal were descriptors my teacher chose even though no one in my grade had seen it barring those with older sibling. That may have been when I first learned that a fire needs oxygen to burn because the …
Can You See?
My daughter and her husband both love ice cream. She always ribs him because he asks, “is yours good?” meaning he wants to taste hers too. She forgets that when she was small and said she wanted to share, it meant she wanted to taste ours. If I asked her for a bite, she would …
Simultaneously Present
My son and daughter-in-law and I stood on the water’s edge at the coast after dinner this week enjoying a video chat with my daughter and grandson in the mountains. He smiled as he recognized our voices and caught a glimpse of our faces. We watched as he pushed up onto hands and knees, ready …
Trust Obeys
“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.” Matthew 14:29 There are intersections in life where I’ve felt my voice and my influence waning. When my children began driving, preparing for college, and marriage- moments when their heads were turned and I prayed that …
Whatever You Can Carry
By far my favorite scene of the 1998 movie EVER AFTER: A Cinderella Story with Drew Barrymore plays out in a dense wood. Prince Henry has been detained by a band of Gypsies while he is walking with Danielle(Barrymore). The leader of the Gypsies has taken Danielle’s dress from where it was discarded on the …
Service Not Status
It snowed again last night. Here in the south, we rarely see two snows in one winter, much less in one week! As the temperature neared fifty midweek, the first snow melted, leaving sketchy patches of snow across the dormant grass. Bermuda turns straw-colored in winter but remains thickly thatched year round. It’s very much …
Those God Foreknew
My second grandchild will be a girl. Her parents could hardly wait to find out! It was intended to be a surprise for Christmas and my son really did try to keep the secret. He made it a full twenty minutes of conversation before it slipped out! “Our little girl will be…” Only then he …
Signs and Wonders
I didn’t expect my fig tree to bear fruit in its second year, yet somehow it bloomed well past its growing season. By winter, I counted at least twenty figs. They never reached peak size nor did they ripen. The first frost left the fruit exposed on bare limbs where they remain. The people in …
If Only
My mind runs ahead of me all day everyday. As I’m washing dishes or folding laundry, eating my breakfast or driving, if I’m not engaged in conversation (and sometimes even when I am) I am thinking ahead. I’m making plans with contingencies for every possibility I can imagine. When everything is going according to plan, …
A Mother’s Heart
My Gift - Artwork by Elisabeth Crocker with a little help from her mom Our kids made our hearts skip a beat when they shared their news that they’re expecting and we’d be grandparents, but their “don’t tell anyone yet because we want to announce it” left us anxious to celebrate and worried that we’d …
A Fitting Reply 