a ghostly presence in his favorite haunt,
the heron silently stalks in the shallows
in striated afternoon light;
the apparition reflected in still water mesmerizes,
distracting him from his quest for food 

consumed with consuming, he beguiles
himself only momentarily, but finally
in hunger, pokes his bea...

    mired at low tide the
   star is separated from
       its constellation

Liz McFadzean

Last summer, I told the lovely story of how my family came to Epworth in Michigan.  But there is another side to that story-- a painful side, a side unflattering to myself.

From my youngest years, the Wagner family would all pack into my grandmother’s cottage.  That was a lot of people.  My aunts a...

Last week while in Hawai’i, we took a tour of the memorial in Pearl Harbor to the crew of the USS Arizona.  It is a beautiful and moving tribute to the over 1,000 men who made the ultimate sacrifice, among the first American casualties in World War II.  As we walked quietly over the submerged remain...

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.”  1 Peter 2:24

On Palm Sunday I was looking at trees in Hawai’i, and specifically the fronds of palm trees that tower above.  Who climbed up these stately trees to get palms by the hundreds to give Jesus a royal welcome, laying branches on the road...

from Matthew 5:13-16

YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, says He.
Who me? says I.  That cannot be.

So many gas bags flying around
bumping, colliding and bringing me down.

YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH, says He.
I’m avoiding all salt, for my heart, says me.

YOU ARE A LAMP, DON’T HIDE UNDER A BOWL.
LET YO...

Our first granddaughter Charlotte has a passion for Junie B. Jones.  I might even call it an obsession.  Junie is a fictitious kindergartner/first grader a little like Ramona Quimby and Pippi Longstocking, with a little of Amelia Bedelia’s literalism thrown in.  She’s spunky, mischievous and earnest...

It’s a pilgrimage I undertake
whenever I’m nearby
I go again and again
to visit cherished relatives
so long gone
seeking the living among the dead
saying nothing
that hasn’t been said before

there is no ghostly reply
nor do I expect one 
perhaps that is the attraction
the chance to speak without interruption...

Everyone has different goals when organizing their houses.  And likewise, everyone has different attitudes toward “stuff”.  I have two cousins who were in clean-out mode last summer, and they couldn’t have been more different.  Mary’s mother and brother had died in 2019 and she inherited the family ...

I’ve shown you some of the things that I’ve held onto from my closet clean-outs, but this week I present things that I do not plan to keep…. although since taking this photo, my husband has pulled a few items back from the brink, like the candle in a silver heart engraved “Happy 25^th Anniversary, Da...