Tapping into Gifts

For years, decades actually, I’ve been trying to learn Spanish. One discouraging drawback is that I couldn’t roll my “r’s.” Nothing I was told or read on the Internet helped. Then last week, without even giving it a thought, I pronounced the word for “guitar,” and the “r’s” rolled! It was not at all how […]

Easter Eggs’ Lesson on Life and Death

Three Easter memories: Every Easter my mom melted beeswax in a coffee can lid and using a pin stuck in the end of a matchstick painted graceful patterns on eggs. The eggs emerged from a bath in Chick-Chick dye vividly colored. These eggs were robbed of their chance to bring forth chicks. Instead they became […]

Pierogi and Beatitudes

Today I made pierogi for the first time, the meat and vegetable kind. The dough was not right. I won’t be serving the results to anyone. Instead I’ll have to eat forty perogi myself! The process of cooking them, though, prompted some reflections on life. We are all in the business of producing a life. […]

Let Something New Renew You

While reading a historical fiction book, the thought occurred to me that I could write something like that. Now, I’ve written dozens of nonfiction books but never a novel. For me this would be a novel experience! (Sorry, couldn’t resist that pun.) But could I do it? As I plunged into the project, I discovered […]

Surprise: New Life

Last week the lawn where I live was brown with bald patches. When Jim came to mow it, I ran out and asked, “Why are you doing this?” He assured me that after a rain the grass would spring up again. Looking at the ugly dead lawns all down the street, I doubted him. But […]

Cherishing and Relishing Life

As a significant birthday approaches, I find myself paying more attention to things I can enjoy because I’m alive. The other morning on my way to 6:45 a.m. Mass the sunrise was extraordinarily spectacular: a shining ball of red-orange and wisps of pink-tinged clouds. After Mass a tall dad came into church towing a four-year-old […]

Appreciating Being Alive

We just celebrated my mom’s 91st birthday. She bemoans her loss of independence and her pains. “Just throw me in Lake Erie,” she remarks. Yet she is anticipating another birthday party next year. And her family is glad she is still with us. I too am moving closer to the end of my life. This […]