My Dad loved to read. He was a picky reader and tended to stick to action books, mostly westerns. Of those, his favorite author was Louis L’Amour. He had most all of L’Amour’s books and read them over and over. I now have his yellowing and tattered collection of paperbacks. I try once a year […]
She normally had the beach to herself. She always woke up long before daylight, a habit honed from necessity rather than preference. While others slept, she enjoyed the calm before the chaos of the day began. Long before the sunburns and the sandcastles, before the frisbees flew and kites fluttered, she walked, scanning the Atlantic […]
She normally had the beach to herself. She always woke up long before daylight, a habit honed from necessity rather than preference. While others slept, she enjoyed the calm before the chaos of the day began. Long before the sunburns and the sandcastles, before the frisbees flew and kites fluttered, she walked, scanning the Atlantic […]
Last Christmas, our daughter gave Mindi and I a free night of babysitting that we used to catch a concert at one of our favorite venues. I wasn’t expecting a new insight into grief as Johnnyswim walked out onto the stage that night, but that’s what I got. The husband-wife duo talked about how they had […]
In the years after my brother died, I began to interact with a lot of people who were facing loss. As a counselor I sat across from more and more people in the gray days after someone’s death as they tried to pull the pieces of their life back together. I noticed something in them […]
My brother and his family lived about an hour away from where I went to college. So, from time to time I would go up and spend the night, eat real food and have some family time. I remember one weekend, Randy and his wife Margaret where doing some spring cleaning. They determined to make […]
“So, don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:34, NLT) Those words were spoken to an audience over 2000 years ago, they are still applicable today. Losing someone you love changes everything, and change is hard. It’s hard to imagine a future without that […]
Grief can be an uneven process. It’s often unpredictable, coming in waves of sadness and then yielding to days of reprieve. It can bring depression, anger, relief, and confusion, sometimes all in the same day. Memories play an important part in the process of grieving. The way that we engage our memories will often determine our […]
Last week marked six years since my brother died. I’ve thought about him and the intervening six years a lot over the past few weeks. My brother was possibly the best human I’ve ever known. Our family didn’t have a lot, and it had even less when he and my sister were growing up (he […]
This past Sunday was Senior Adult Sunday at our church. I always look forward to this day on the calendar. It’s when our Senior Adults, many in their 70’s and 80’s fill the choir, make the announcements, play piano pieces, and pray. For people like me with no parents or grandparents living, this day makes […]