Rockwall, TX (May 15, 2025) – Do high-school students still suffer the required reading of books written hundreds of years ago? As a teenager, I had little interest in an assignment to read Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But I became hooked and read more of his plays, which kept me up past midnight—unable to […]
Rockwall, TX (March 5, 2025) – A certain Sunday delivered a perfect spring morning to central Kansas. A young man stood on his porch and noticed the swollen buds on an elm tree. His wife, meanwhile, peered into her bedroom closet. Pregnant with their first child, she easily chose one of the few dresses she […]
Rockwall, TX (February 6, 2025) – Love is “a many-splendored thing,” according to an old book/song/movie title. Those who have fallen in love will agree. But there is one facet of love that makes a person ill: lovesickness. This could be due to distance, or a break-up, or else that northern exposure side of love […]
Adobe stock library Rockwall, TX (November 29, 2024) – An old monk’s dying testimony surely surprised those who revered him for his great humility and service to all those around him. The Elder Zosima revealed his past sins of jealousy, anger, and hatred that nearly led to murder. Though he had grown up inspired by […]
Rockwall, TX (October 23, 2024) – The dark and musty garage laundry room with one small window that allowed a bit of moonlight provided a perfect atmosphere for our small group of neighborhood kids to meet. We sat in a circle as the older ones told ghost stories that made us shiver with excitement or […]
Rockwall, TX (September 25, 2024) – Sunday worship at my church begins with contemporary songs followed by several hymns. I don’t recall the song titles of a certain service last summer, but I’ll never forget the voice I heard singing—my own. “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed,” says Jeremiah 17:14.* Just days […]
Rockwall, TX (August 14, 2024) – My husband and I have competing interests when it comes to long-distance drives. In his destination-driven perspective, the goal is to arrive as soon as possible. My own travel preference is to slow down and explore—stop and smell the roses, or the barbecue. When it comes to life in […]
Rockwall, TX (June 28, 2024) – No disease was needed to shut down April-May classes and commencement ceremonies this year. It appears that illnesses of the emotional type are equally contagious. Those staples of modern American culture—offense and outrage—so easily feed these epidemics. It’s no surprise that college students have the vigor needed to sustain […]
Rockwall, TX (May 16, 2024) – All six of us were present and seated around our parents’ dinner table several days after our father died. We had also gathered here just five months earlier, after our mother passed away. None of us wanted to be recalled so soon to those duties that mingle with grief. […]
Rockwall, TX (March 25, 2024) – Elizabeth Bennet and the aristocratic Mr. Darcy quietly observed each other at a local ball. Lizzy disliked his high-brow bearing, while he, though attracted to Lizzy, rejected any thought of a connection to her less cultivated family. Reading Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice could cure us of […]