following my Master where He leads
As Christmas approaches, my house is filled with the smell of baking cookies. Year after year, I spend December evenings baking—traditional sugar cookies, rugelach, chocolate-dipped melting moments, pecan balls, hazelnut shortbread, regular shortbread… Our family’s tradition is to set aside one day before Christmas and invite friends over, bake and decorate with them, and give them each […]
Although most of the world knows the importance of 9/11, the significance of 11/11 is a treasure that I furtively guard deep in my heart. The banks are closed, the mail is not delivered, and schoolchildren stay home for Veterans Day. But to me, 11/11 is so much more than a national holiday; it’s a […]
Challenged by a devotional sent to me by a friend, I began to think of the things I love. What simple things bring joy into my everyday life? I love the warmth of the sun on my skin. I love the buzzing of cicadas on a sultry summer day and the concert of crickets at […]
“You can complain about your teaching job if you want to,” said my daughter to a staff member at the college where she’s studying, “but let me tell you about Hania and Orko. “I met Hania and Orko in Ukraine when I was young. Hania used to be a servant in my great grandmother’s home in […]
My spirits soared after talking with the nurse on Friday: the brain scan “showed nothing that would cause the headaches.” Slowly, the headaches subsided after the boulder of worry had been removed. Praise God, I feel well again. I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. […]
Last night, after watering all my hostas, I stood under the quarter moon in the dark of night. I stood still and thought how hard it can be to direct one’s thoughts to giving thanks when the mind is a storm of worry. But I would try. Indeed, there is much to be thankful for, despite the strange localized […]
I heard this saying from my mama so often that it seemed that she authored these words. “Count your blessings,” she would say no matter what the circumstances. Hers was not an easy life. My mama, an only child born in Ukraine when it was under Polish rule, lost her mother to TB when she […]
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