Living Real

As I read the Bible before I started out on this long day, I came across 2 Timothy 1:16-18. Paul has been talking about being in prison for the cause of Christ and those who have left his ministry because of his situation. “May the Lord show special kindness to Onesiphorus and all his family [...]

I recently received an email in which God and St. Francis were talking about lawn care and how people had chosen boring old grass over the varied and useful flowers He had planted. As my husband, Jack, and I rode around Cades Cove last evening, I took some photos (naturally) of some of those various [...]

Back in January, I took on a challenge instead of making a list of resolutions. First I have to confess. I haven’t really focused on my word, “know” — not consciously. However, I must have had it at the back of my mind, because I’m getting there. I’m learning more every day who I am: [...]

Scripture tells us that the tongue holds great power. James likened it to the rudder of a ship. Psalms tells us that it holds the power of life and death. I invite you to think about this. When I was nine years old, my family moved to a new house in a whole new area. [...]

Saturday morning. After arriving home close to midnight last night, I planned to sleep in a bit this morning. Between the dog and telephone that didn’t happen. That’s okay, except for the fact that I’m really hungover. Walking into the kitchen for my coffee this morning was a chore. My actions were automatic. Answering a [...]

There’s an old saying, “all good things must come to an end.” I guess that includes vacations especially. I mean, if we could STAY on vacation, it wouldn’t really be vacation, right? This is the first time I’ve been on vacation that the coming home was difficult. Not because I didn’t want to come home, [...]

This morning, I began the process of processing pumpkins for pies and bread. When I cut open this massive gourd, I found the surprise you can see in this picture. New life. But wait. Is it? Life, I mean? The seed has sprouted, but it is inside the pumpkin. Recently I’ve heard of someone who [...]

I can’t say I’m a deeply theological person. My faith is really quite simple. God said it. That’s it. It’s taken a lot of time for me to get to the place where I know what God actually says. That was kinda thwarted by a rocky start in the church of my youth, but I’ve [...]

Perhaps you’ve noticed I’ve been absent. Perhaps not. Call it writers block. Call it lazy. Call it whatever you wish, but I just haven’t been able to write over the past several weeks. Watch out world, that’s about to change. On May 24th, I had surgery on my right foot. I will share some stories [...]

Americans are such racists. By and large, all of us are.  Whether you’re black, white, red, yellow or whatever. We argue amongst ourselves about racial equality — primarily between black and white. It’s amazing, however, to see how those racial lines seem to disappear into a form of unity when our American race is challenged. [...]

I must make a confession. There’s a television show on A & E Television about people who hang on to items that they really can’t use, until it essentially chokes the life from their life. I am a hoarder. For years I’ve hoarded chips & dip, candy bars, too much steak & shrimp, and bread, [...]

The trip away was great. Had I not gone, I would have missed out. Today, I’ll share the briefest (yeah, right) of summaries, then through the week, I’ll unpack these with more detail. Wednesday, we took the long (really long) way from Townsend to Anderson. We stopped at Sticky Fingers in Chattanooga for lunch, then [...]