When the mother of a lifelong friend died, we came to pay our respects. As sometimes happens, the post-service family visitation became an impromptu youth group reunion. Great hugs and greetings were exchanged as we reconnected with some of those…
Hope is my friend
I was cruising through the list of notification on the GoodReads web site when one caught my eye. “Hope is your friend.” Of course, it was a notification that someone named Hope and I had made a social media connection,…
Beautiful City
As I’ve been doing some writing today I’ve been listening to music on my computer. I’d loaded some new songs and I smiled as the opening notes of “Beautiful City” from “Godspell” began. It’s always been one of my favorite…
Worlds colliding
As a pioneer in the field of grief, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross used to hold workshops all over the world. In these workshops people didn’t just learn about grief; they had a chance to do deep grieving of their own. A friend…
Praying with the cat
No, that’s not a typo. Let me explain. I am the head of a not-so-blended family. I have two dogs, Oakley (my first dog ever) and Ralphie (adopted as a companion and best buddy for Oakley.) Although my older cats…
Miss Jane
Officially, she had no children. Unofficially, she had scads of them. I don’t know of the children she shepherded as teacher and librarian. By the time I met her she was long retired. I know only of the countless children…
Heart and soul
Two teenagers banging out a duet on an out-of-tune, Sunday School classroom piano. I’ll admit it. that’s the first thing I think of when I see the words, “heart and soul.” And yet, it’s what I’ve chosen to call this…
Being there
Do you know one of the hottest topics in the counseling field is these days? Mindfulness. Yep, that somewhat spiritual sounding practice of being where you are while you’re there is one of the hottest therapeutic tickets around. Not so…