Namaste spirituality group wanted a daylong retreat between Thanksgiving and the beginning of Advent. I volunteered to help with organizing it. While there several choices for retreat centers within a relatively short drive, my collaborator found space for our group at the Benedictine Pastoral Center in Bristow, VA. It offered a reasonable cost per attendee…
In June the American Library Association (ALA) renamed the Laura Ingalls Wilder Children’s Book Series Award. This honor was taken away from Mrs. Wilder because her memoirs honestly and accurately depict the fear and distrust between the Western Pioneers and the Indigenous People — from the settler’s point of view. I don’t want this issue…
We celebrate Thanksgiving once a year, but we can be grateful every day. Even when things go wrong, possibly in a big way, there are things for which to give thanks. Gratitude can be a practice that we repeat regularly, rather than just a holiday or event. Nightly prayers for our grandkids end with them…
says Mr. Z, a high school teacher. He hears it everyday, as schools embrace technology and use it for daily lessons. But this excuse highlights the raging controversy: is eschewing paper and pens and teaching students on computers really the best policy? Studies are showing that now, the most important lesson that must be taught…
aging / Body / Need-to-know
Some incidents from chaplaincy are unforgettable. One was watching a woman get cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) — three times over the course of a day. Twice, she was resuscitated. Death won the last match-up, but not without a fight. Before the attending doctor instructed the code team to stop, the woman’s abdominal area looked like a…
Not just the leaves turning golden yellow in the background either! This is the desk of someone who only has one chapter to go to finish writing the first book in a new series. (Don’t get too excited, I still have to keep editing, (hence the big coffee pot) but I only have one chapter…
Are you living authentically? Someday, someone will reflect on that question. However, since the person will be speaking at your funeral, you won’t be there. We often wait until someone dies before we tell them how much they have meant to us. The word eulogy derives from Greek and means praise, although people generally associate…
I just can’t wait any longer. I have been slaving away, writing this book for oh–about ten years, TEN YEARS! (At least now the book is a three book series – but is that justification for how long this is taking? no!) These past few months I have been frantically trying to meet my publisher’s…
As I walked in a crosswalk, a driver stared at me and then rolled right in front of me. If I hadn’t stopped, the car would have hit me. It’s possible the phone she was using distracted her. As she passed, I noticed the license plate’s ironic message: Choose Life. Apparently, there are limits to…
It’s official! I have signed a three book contract to publish my new series The Journey of Cornelia Rose. Do you have any idea how excited I am??? #dreamjob. Just ecstatic that my series has been accepted at Evolved, since the competition to get published is pretty stiff, I am now a member of the team for…
Some of my memories from the early 60s are clear. Records and newspapers can confirm public events; unverifiable is what they meant to me. Mourning President Kennedy’s assassination: November 1963–a worldwide tragedy but heartbreaking and personal for Irish Catholic immigrants, like my parents–“He was one of us.” Watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show: Feb…
I have been having a blast researching West Point Academy history in the 1850s. Writing a few chapters about the Academy in those pre-civil war days, when West Point was busy training leaders for both the North and the South, demands not only online research but books, magazines like Bugle Notes and some trekking through…
