As my husband and I were driving across the country from our home in California to our summer cottage in Michigan, we received word that our theatre professor and acting teacher, John David Lutz had been placed on hospice care in his home.  His wife Kathy assured us that it wasn’t because death was ...

Last week’s post garnered more response than usual.  Some of you wrote to tell me that you had always wondered what Lazarus felt about coming back from the dead.  Others wrote to tell me that you had NEVER thought about it from Lazarus’ point of view.  The poem seemed to speak profoundly to both. 

Poor Lazarus
   asleep in his tomb
   held womblike for all eternity
   hearing the wails and laments of his sisters
   as though a distant memory
   an echo of something gone but not forgotten

 Perhaps forgotten would be better
   left alone in silence
   left in peace
   until along comes a man
   with te...

Coming to Christ at the tail end of the so-called “Jesus Movement”, I think I put more faith in the Holy Spirit’s ability to work in and around me than in any dogma or religious authority.  This was the gift of that era, as portrayed in the film Jesus Revolution.

But one of the instigators of the r...

The resort in Hawai’i where we spent spring break has a lovely feature called the Waikolohe Stream.  Our family called it the lazy river, and it was a favorite activity with everyone whether floating down it on a tube, walking or swimming its circuit or racing someone around and around.  But the laz...

Over thirty years ago, I was driving back to the Midwest from California for the summer with my children.  Just me. My husband had to work. Friends of ours from San Diego were headed the same way, so we decided to caravan.  However, they were planning to camp their way to Nova Scotia.  I borrowed so...

“I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother.” 
                                                         Psalm 131:2

A weaned child is no longer a baby and no longer counting on mother’s milk for sustenance.  But it’s still dependent on mom, still not ready to fly solo. ...

I love books!  That’s why it pains me when people start banning them.  Years ago, as I was walking through Grand Central Terminal in New York City, I bought a bracelet that said, “I read banned books”.  The books on the bracelet were some classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye.  ...

One lone stick in his ample beak,
   he soars to his mate’s side
     building a nest for hatchlings
high in the rookery
   in the low country swamp…
     danger lurks in the murky depths,
gators waiting to grasp
   at any tumbled, fumbled eggs;
     but he stretches his forceful wings
and watchfully circles...

              A gelatinous
        judiciously gentle orb
       floats by…INCOMING!

 Liz McFadzean