The dirt’s packed hard.  I take my trowel
and loosen the soil, digging a hole
deep enough for the tiniest seed.  The earth
feels dusty in my hands; it lodges under
my nails as I pack it down on top of this
embryonic plant.

I need no supplement for the soil.
The ash of thousands of lives...

“Every believer was faithfully devoted to following the teachings of the apostles.  Their hearts were mutually linked to one another…They shared meals together with joyful hearts and tender humility.”  From Acts 2:42-47 

I read this passage with a pang of wistful...

The youngest ones bolt up the mountain
  with eager exuberance; nothing
can stop them from running to
  the summit.  But I am out of breath,
climbing this holy hill.  It is a climb
  that I have made repeatedly
slogging up the trail for over fifty years. 
  It gets...

My husband, like most men, is so difficult to shop for.  That’s why this year when I heard him say before Christmas that he’d like to go to the symphony sometime, I went right online and ordered tickets for a Beethoven and Tchaikovsky concert on Sunday afternoon, January...

If you had to leave your home in a fire, what would you take?  Almost everyone says photo albums, medications, important documents.  I bet no one says tennis rackets. 

Even after returning last Wednesday, I haven’t yet unpacked my car.  We had to evacuate at 4:30 AM from...

As most of you know by now, our family was evacuated on Wednesday, at 4:30 AM due to the Eaton fire in Altadena, the community next door to ours.  We have been staying in Orange County ever since, first with our son and his family and then in a hotel.  With school cancelled through...

Turning the page on a new year, I’ve reflected on how I began my journey of Quotidian Thoughts over eleven years ago.  What is a Quotidian Thought anyway?  

Quotidian Thoughts are those moments of everydayness, that take on some meaning or significance because of their very...

“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.”    Christina Rossetti

Some people really dislike this classic Christmas hymn.  I don’t know if they find it too grim and cheerless, or if they take issue because...

One day during Advent, I found myself sitting in my bathrobe, in my living room where I could see the front of the house, afraid to leave in case porch pirates were tempted by the stack of Christmas boxes on my  porch.  Mostly full of worthless trinkets of gifts that I send to my...

On an early morning during Thanksgiving week, we wove into our London vacation a photo shoot for all of our Christmas cards.  It was one of those perfect days: no fog, no rain, slightly nippy but not frigid.  We managed to get everyone dressed and made up, and we congenially wended our...