Should I steal when I’m hungry? The boys in my class for behavior disordered students always had the same question. Each year. “What do you do when you don’t have nothing to eat at home?” Usually, this led to a discussion on why it is all right to steal from the local 7-Eleven because the […]
“The more basic the color, the more inward, the more pure.” – Piet Mondrian As a first year teacher, the goal for my wardrobe was to be “minimalistic.” The term had been batted around by art students and the concept appealed to me. The Minimalists include artists like Piet Mondrian who use geometric shapes in […]
BETTER ME THAN DEAD By Linda Rondeau Dodging traffic and sniffing dogs, I continued the daily grind going house to house with a not so happy spirit. I was hired by a local school district to conduct its yearly census. It was not a job that I relished, but it was some income that could […]
Photo from peoplesbanktheatre.com The music filled the Dorothy Meneker Theatre with 110 voices singing in four part harmony backed by live musicians playing violins, flutes, cellos and muted drums. The words formed inspiring images of reaching for dreams and finding them attainable by one thing: believe. The message from the song “Believe” from the hit […]
thewordfortheday.tumblr.com “You can go to college. You can have a career. Study hard.” Those words from my mother still echo in my head. Good advice. But from a woman married to an alcoholic and poorer than a church mouse, the statistical possibility of her daughters graduating from college would have discouraged many. Not my […]
As a child, I lived on an eighty-acre dairy farm in Wisconsin. We slopped pigs, gathered eggs, cleaned/plucked chickens, hung by our knees from the top of the windmill, and birthed calves. Nature and life intertwined as geese migrated overhead and ice storms prevented the school bus from coming. A feeling of satisfaction and harmony […]
“They were trailblazers for women in the military, for the Army Nurse Corps. They set the example for the rest of the services. Their story told the world…that women are tough, they can serve in combat and they can survive.” -Lt. Col. Nancy Cantrell, nurse and historian Preparation from Life The 99 Navy and Army […]
For two hours, Vernon and I watched disturbing, yet stunning visuals flash across our television screen. Frightening images of gigantic black blizzards engulfing barns and cities with devastating results. Plagues of jackrabbits and locusts. Old and young coughing from dust pneumonia. The first DVD of The Dust Bowl, by Ken Burns, sent chills pearling over our […]
“Where does God want to take your plenty and pour it out?” – Jennie Allen One word kept appearing in the book I read with quickening hope. Anything. “The very idea of doing anything demands everything,” the author, Jennie Allen, wrote.¹ Complete surrender to God’s will. At the end of the book’s last paragraph, my […]
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” — Corrie Ten Boom Snowflakes blurred my line of vision as my husband and I slogged our way to the thrift store. […]