Someone who knows I love this song gave me these two favorite lines of it during our family Thanksgiving gathering. This unexpected and special gift was doubly inspiring. First, I knew right away it was the perfect backdrop for our family nativity set. Our nativity is a simple one, and I've always loved it. Charles and I bought it in Shaker Village on February 6, 1988. I know this because I wrote the date and place on the box - one of the very few times I remembered that some

For a couple of years after 2007 ended like it did, I would flinch about the time November started to roll around. If you've read "Hey, God? Yes, Charles.", you know that my husband died unexpectedly the Monday after Thanksgiving and my mother died four weeks later on Christmas Eve. But in those years right after 2007, I was also benefiting from wise counsel. Some I paid for, some was a gift one friend to another, but two of these people once answered the same question in ess

Next year is my 100 year class reunion. Seriously. Well, okay - reunions. Either way, I've been around a while. Because of Daddy's job change right after my junior year in high school, I had to move an hour away from all the school friends I'd ever known. I won't even pretend that I did that graciously. But doggone if I didn't meet Charles at the new school. In fact, the photo in the back of "Hey, God? Yes, Charles." was taken at one of our reunions by a classmate. Sh

Blood and guts movies are not my thing and, if that’s all Hacksaw Ridge is, I’d still have the $9 senior citizen ticket money in my pocket. But I'd heard enough buzz about the movie that I had to find out more. Then when I learned the story – and that it was true - I thought, my goodness, if someone could live that, the least I can do is watch it. This is not a movie review. I'm not here to debate whether it's a Christian flick (hmmm, good question, maybe, but maybe not), wh

How fun is this : ) In some remarks addressing a group at Belmont University a couple of weeks ago, I included much of the back story to "Hey, God? Yes, Charles." In sharing many of the things that have knit this journey together, I also pointed out that no credit is mine, that I didn't even write the book - Charles and God took care of that. Nonetheless, I confessed to a favorite part, and that's all the messages and responses I have received from folks who have read it.

The year before Charles died, we put our house on the market (it was a great time financially) and bought a 40 foot motor home (is there ever a good time financially?) We were both working and, to this day, I don't know what brought that on. We knew nothing about that kind of travel and less about problem- solving during that kind of travel. But if ignorance is bliss, we were blissed up. We did know we could hook up all the technology needed to work from the road, and since t

Pumpkins are never on my radar until October. But then boom! I'll remember how much I really like them, maybe partly because they make me smile and because they're so resilient. First incarnated as friendly or fearsome jack-o-lanterns, they're fun until the end of October. And then deconstructed as plainer ole pumpkins, they can be perfectly beautiful marching toward Thanksgiving. That pumpkin patch can be decorated lots of ways. Or, shoot, you can even eat 'em! That is