writing when inspired about the often overlooked
This morning, I am stopped by the quiet beauty of gray clouds and a thin sliver of pastel blue sky lining the horizon across the frozen snow-covered lake. What is it that makes me stop at the sight? get a lump in my throat? What is so unusual about a cloudy morning after a snowstorm…
written during a season of loss in 2006 – 7 months after Gordon died and 3 months after Galen lost his job at the church. My greatest fear – that I would lose the worship choir community which I found to be so life giving for me. I didn’t know how I would survive. Those…
LORD, Driving past the Lake today I notice a traffic control tower. I’ve never seen it before, but I see it now because the trees’s are “empty,” stripped of their leaves. Sort of like my life. . . When the “leaves” of my life are stripped away when I am “empty” I see you more…
I wear this necklace most days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Three year old Little Miss loves it . . . always notices when I wear it . . . Last year, after spending the night with her, she looked at me across the breakfast table, (I was still wearing my snowman pj’s) and seriously observed,…
October 27, 2011 LORD: Sometimes your beauty overwhelms my senses.. Like this evening . . . . What is it that captures my attention . . . makes me run back to the car for my camera? I need to stop and pay attention. It’s the sun that creates the unusual beauty this evening Without…
(Start HERE for full “Before and After” series) My REFUGE: My cousin Janet sends me an email on either Wednesday or Thursday of that week. I can still remember sitting at Carol’s computer reading her email to me. It was a short email . . . simply sharing verse that helped her when her dad died. …
(Start HERE for full “Before and After” series) It’s Monday Morning and Mom and Dad and I are flying home. Galen stays behind to help Carol with business matters. A week ago they were searching for him. Now we are headed home after the Memorial Service. As I sit there I notice . . . The…
(Start HERE for full “Before and After” series) Carol’s (Gordon’s wife) thoughts on the Memorial Service November 12, 2005: God gave me the music one special song at a time. * Right after the phone call on my way home from Missoula, I heard “I Can Only Imagine” and knew the situation was bad and I…
(Start HERE for full “Before and After” series) click HERE for Before and After Day 6 Part 1 In Between Death & Life – a blog written by my son Todd on November 11, 2005. It’s not supposed to be this way. You are not supposed to watch your grandparents stand over the coffin of…
(Start HERE for full “Before and After” series) This evening we will be at the funeral home greeting friends and family. People and flowers and food flowed into the house. This white flower was one of the first and the most striking in appearance and fragrance. Notice the new Testament and Psalms. Carol and I “lived”…