Benjamin Lay was his name. Long ago, when slavery was accepted by just about everyone as a brutal fact of life, this four foot tall man took it on. He saw its ugly face when he and his wife Sarah arrived in Barbados in the year 1718. The more the Lays saw of the cruelty … Read more
Barbara and Diane became lifelong friends in elementary school. As it turned out, they lived just down the road from each other on the Bakerview Road in this most northwestern town. Lucky girls – Mt. Baker, all 10,000 feet of her, reigned from behind the clouds at the end of their road, appearing now and … Read more
She’s just starting into 2nd. grade, cruising toward her eighth birthday. Her mom and dad kindly let us “borrow” her and her sister from time to time. There’s just nothing quite like having kids in the house. So we had a reading date with her last week. (She’s already reading beautifully.) And she came to … Read more
Recently, on a visit to our daughter’s home in Virginia, we experienced a slightly harrowing ride from Ronald Reagan Airport to her home an hour west of DC. It was made less alarming by our driver, a delightful Senegalese immigrant who regaled us with interesting tales about his country and his path to America. His … Read more
I guess that most people would have considered us to be poor, but I don’t remember feeling that way, exactly. It was more about the dark curtain of isolation that threatened to smother me. Whatever could have prepared me for this shock? Wandering down Lake Mary Boulevard almost 50 years later, I can see the Florida … Read more
My grandma’s cookie jar sat on the counter in a corner of her little pink kitchen, just waiting for her grandchildren to show up. Oh, how I looked forward to putting my hand into that cookie jar and grabbing one of those mouthwatering store bought cookies. As far as I was concerned, I suffered from … Read more
It caught my eye the first time I spotted it gleaming with rosy pride in my mother’s china cabinet. A squat little teapot with matching cups and saucers and little plates just the right size for some fancy sugary morsel. Oh, how I would love to own it. To me, it was the perfect tea … Read more
The kitchen is flooded with the strong morning light of summer. I wonder once again how it is that anyone can prefer any season over summer, its soft warm air, its permeating light. Surely the darkness of December can never come again! The forest is radiating light from every quivering leaf, and the birds are … Read more
I don’t know how God dreamed up this place, but He must have known how much we would grow to love it. Somewhere back in time, a huge boulder carved out a deep hole and winter after winter, the heavy rains filled it. The secret spring hidden in the woods sent the brook tumbling in to speed … Read more
It’s a perfect June morning. Mother wakes me with a gentle tap on my shoulder. Sunshine is pooling softly on my bedroom floor. “Wake up, Rosalie. We’re going to see Grandma today”. This is the sweetest news my six year old ears could hope to hear. This means a day of fun with Margie, my … Read more