On Ash Wednesday, we entered into not only the liturgical season of Lent, but also into the 2010 “40 Days for Life” campaign.   In hopes of encouraging as much participation as possible in this important spiritual work of…

When we only read Holy Scripture in snippets or summaries, we miss some contextual words that can help us better understand God’s love.  For example, it wasn’t until I read the 10 Commandments straight from Deuteronomy 5:1-21 that…

This time last year some graduate-school friends from Ireland and their three young children came to visit us on the Cape.  It had been several years since we had seen one another, so our time together was rich with recounting…

Thirty years ago I received a Christmas gift that would change my life.  It came from my mother, a woman so artistically gifted and impulsively creative that each year the wrapping paper and bows on the presents beneath our tree…

I live in the zone of overlapping radio waves for K-Love Christian radio station and a National Public Radio station that both broadcast at 91.1 FM. Because of my geographical location, these two stations from polar opposite ends of…

I heard a shocker the other day.  One evening, while out with a few girlfriends, a man approached my sister-in-law and started flirting.  It had only been a few months since she and her husband had exchanged wedding rings,…

My job in the economy of our family is to plug the holes of unnecessary spending in order to stretch my husband’s income as far as possible. It’s a challenging position, but one that has become a bit…

A peculiar thing happened this past spring.  After dropping two of my children off for a monthly zoology class at a medium-size zoo in the middle of Massachusetts, I strolled to a nearby nature preserve with my toddler.  Moss-covered…

While waiting in the car for my 19-year-old daughter to get out of work, I was trying hard to entertain her 17-month-old brother. Not finding many toys in the car, I gave him my purse, which he dug…

For most people, owning a dog is not simply a matter of having a pet, but of opening wide their hearts and homes, and totally embracing a new family member who just happens to be of the canine species.…