Category: disappointment

The Tale of Two Towers

Two “tower” options…which would you prefer? An 11-day visit to Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle and all-you-can-eat meals on a week-long riverboat cruise up the Seine. Or a 12-day stay at Pottstown Hospital-Tower Health, including 10 days without eating or drinking, an NG tube, a PICC line and a bowel resection. …

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The Healing Power of Your Mind

So, who do you think you talk most to every day? I know who that person is for me and although I can’t prove it, I bet it’s the same for you. I don’t usually speak out loud to this person although once in awhile I have been known to blurt out a few words. I …

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Are you telling yourself the truth?

Do you remember the old game show “To Tell the Truth”? My mother and I enjoyed watching that daytime show in the ’60s, but if you’re not familiar with it then or the later remakes, here’s the gist. Three people introduce themselves as the same person–a real individual  who has an incredible story to tell. …

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The Goodness of God and the “Badness” of Life

The other morning as I listened to CeCe Winans belt out the song “The Goodness of God,” I suddenly had flashbacks of “bad” things I’ve experienced in my nearly seven decades of living. A Mother’s Day miscarriage. A life-threatening cancer diagnosis. Untimely deaths of dear friends. Painful turmoil in churches. Addiction crises ending in suicides. …

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Shock, Despair, Peace and Hope

Last year when my friend Carolyn took ornaments off the Christmas tree, she wondered what changes would come to her family before she unpacked them again. Never could she have imagined what 2022 would bring. But neither could she have foreseen what God was going to supply for one of the most difficult years of …

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A Good Word (or two or three) for the New Year

Do you know the first word you ever spoke? Perhaps “da-da” or maybe “ma-ma?” I don’t recall whether my mother ever told me mine, but I know for certain what our oldest daughter initially uttered. Danielle was 8.5 months old and crawling after my parents’ Siamese cat when my mother and I heard her say …

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The Power of “Even If”

This past weekend my husband and I traveled to western New York for my first in-person speaking engagements since the pandemic began. (I’ve only been doing Zoom events so it was a little more work figuring out what pair of nice pants to wear 🙂 ) While in the area, we had the joy of …

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Is Jesus Really Enough?

My cancer diagnosis  in 1990 was especially crushing to my husband because he had lost his first wife nearly 20 years before to ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) while they were still newlyweds. To watch me face a life-threatening illness and such an uncertain future was like a recurring nightmare. One day as he was riding …

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“Give Peace a Chance”

You may or may not be familiar with the 1969 Beatles’ song, “Give Peace a Chance” but years later John Lennon explained its message: “It wasn’t like ‘You have to have peace!’ Just give it a chance. We ain’t giving any gospel here – just saying how about this version for a change? We think we have the right to …

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“Just let ’em fall like healing rain”

May I be honest and share two things?…First, this short post is mainly for me. And second, the song at the end is the best part of it. I’m writing for myself because unwelcome events have left a trail of sadness in my heart. Perhaps you can relate. I’m mourning two years of a brutal …

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