Fifteen years ago I planted these trees with the youth in the AmeriCorps program I administered. We spent the day working side-by-side with a group of mentally-disabled adults. For years I’ve wondered about the trees whenever I passed by the area. This week, in need of sustenance, I searched for their location.
Perhaps I needed to physically [...]
Last weekend a friend wrote that she wanted to find grant funding for her photo documentary. Since we were fooling around with the Google Wave, I could easily research sites for her and post the links into our live chat. I gave her an assignment. She had to get this cutting-edge project funded.
Many artists and [...]
A funny thing happened to me in the grocery store. Well really, it’s been happening to me everywhere I go. People keep telling me about hidden pains and injuries. Since my wrist is in a brace to allow my tendon to heal, I am visibly injured. When people ask and find out it will take [...]
Rivers roar, split and combine repeatedly
“Wait a minute,” the teenage student from Togo interjected, “You mean the United States had a civil war?”
I was in the middle of giving a tour of the Gettysburg battlefield to a group of teenagers on a week-long service project. Although we had talked about the tour, apparently the [...]
Our friend’s father was meeting us at a vacation cabin. When he arrived early, he decided to sightsee and wound up lost. He called trying to find his way back to the rental house but he didn’t know where he was or what road he was on. All he kept repeating was “Just tell me [...]
I started chanting “Fiber Friends Unite” with my friend Rita this morning and it had nothing to do with FIOS. Back in June my arm was injured and even with a cast and lots of rest, it still hurts. We started to joke that I should be able to tell the microscopic parts of my [...]
Sometimes I wonder if attending a funeral during our honeymoon influenced my fairly frequent thoughts on the frailty of life. After traveling for a week, my groom and I visited his grandmother. Soon after we arrived his grandmother’s sister lost her husband in the middle of the night and the commotion woke us. I still [...]
While grunting with each move, I push myself to complete the rotations from my kickboxing instructor. As I finish the last one I invariably think “Wow, I can’t believe I just did that!” and she almost always yells “Again!”
For the first time in my life, I’m physically pushing myself beyond anything I have ever imagined. [...]
Scaffolding rose up toward the ceiling where the altar usually stands at the front of the church. Even though this was a special day for my son to celebrate Communion, we were not going to be kneeling at our familiar altar. Nothing was usual.
When I first heard the stained glass window was to be re-installed [...]
During a seventh grade dance Anthony told me that if I lost 50 pounds, I would be really good looking. He was a kind boy who had stopped girls from calling me names. He was trying to be helpful and give me advice. A year later he was killed in a car crash. I can [...]
Recent Comments