...a word from Kathy

T HIS is the time of the Christmas season that as a young girl I begin to moan..."Can we open our presents?  Please, just one?"  My parents denied this request over and over again until Christmas Eve. Their rule was that we could open only one gift on Christmas Eve; and unfortunately Mama got to decide which gift!!  As I child I hated this rule as I wanted to decide which gift I would open!  I think my children felt the same way as we continued the same tradition...and still do! Over 35 years ago, on Christmas Eve I was cooking special bread for friends.  I had been cooking all day long.  I was making cream cheese braids and it was a process of mixing, rising, filling, baking, waiting and then drizzling icing.  I was bone tired as we had prepared over 30 loaves of bread that day.   I had on my soiled apron, my face was flour-tinged, my hair was falling out of my pony tail, I had no makeup on and was ready to collapse.  It was around 6 p.m....

Mary and Joseph entered a tiny village with no where to bed; She was very pregnant and perhaps he was filled with dread. For where would they stay? This blessed couple on whom the Christ child lay. They were rejected by hotel and inn;  but had knowledge that new life was about to begin. Surrounded by the cold, the hay, the animals, the smell;  But grateful the day had ended; e're not so well. The stirrings began and soon came the One; Who knew what had truly now begun? Miles away the rough shepherds, like me and you;  Looked to the sky and were startled anew. But once they saw, once they heard; There was no question that life would forever be altered. They followed the love, they followed the call, they followed what their hearts could see. He had come.  Finally, finally He had come.  No more hollow hearts, no more tears, no more striving to be more, finally freedom to be, to be who He created me to be. Where do I find my...

We  are a people who like to know what's coming next!  As a young girl, I loved going to the State Fair in Jackson, Mississippi.  Foolishly, my girlfriends and I always wanted to visit the palm reader.  We were in middle school wanting to know what was coming next.  Will I find a boyfriend who will like an overweight girl with freckles?  Will I go to college? Will I marry?  Will I have kids?  The palm reader would read our palms and all the answers seemed amazingly similar for each of us but we somehow didn't notice.  For she was telling us what we wanted to hear.  So, we happily paid our few coins and anticipated our futures! Much more significantly, God also fore told some great news about our lives.  The Christmas season offers us a joyful type of fore telling....Christmas is coming!  Get ready!  Only 17 shopping days left!  Children are anticipating, excited for Christmas morning.  We know what's coming a...

S ome dear friends of ours are expecting.  They're expecting their first puppy!  This pup will be the first "baby" for these friends.  One of these friends has been hoping and praying for this gift, while the other was initially more hesitant but has now come to fully embrace the idea.  Their joy is palpable.  We've seen pictures of the family, heard stories about the naming, learned about house preparation.  And what we see in their faces is pure, delightful JOY. A new world is about to open to them.  And for those of us who have walked this road ahead of them we know puppy-life is so very sweet...and so very, well..."puppilicious".  It's a world filled with exuberance, excitement, confusion, difficulties, crying (only from the pup) but forever love.  The shoes you love...gone.  Grandmother's hand-made quilt...in tatters.  Newly planted flowers...goodbye. And yes, we'd all have a puppy again and again.  For there is nothi...

Y ears ago, Ray and I relocated to Corpus Christi, Texas as he accepted a new job.  We were meeting many new people and a common question was, "What do you do?"  Ray could easily answer this question.  I, however stumbled on the question as I wasn't working yet and it seemed the only appropriate answer was to give a job title.  I longed to have a defined role, an answer to this simple question.  It was awkward and unsettling to not have a quick answer. This question, "What do you do?", is a common and oft repeated life question.  When I worked, I identified myself with my job title.  As a mom with young kids, I was "Mom".  Once I retired from my professional career, my answer would change with Ray's job.  It's interesting to me that in some worlds, I am Nick and Sarah's mom, in other situations I was an employee of a pediatric hospital.  And in a few others, I am a teacher, a volunteer, a wife.  Depending on who you ask, I am d...

R ecently, while walking through a crowded store I heard a voice call out, "Mom!"  I stopped and turned toward the voice but quickly resumed my walk and laughed at myself.  My goodness, my children are adults and live several states away from me, yet I still stopped at the sound of 'Mom'. I heard the familiar call and stopped to answer. Those calls used to drive me crazy as they came frequently and more often than I wanted.  I was a working mom and pretty exhausted in the evenings but the calls continued.  Now years later, I LOVE the call of 'Mom'.  It's a dear call, a reminder of relationship, of love, of life lived together through thick and thin!!  I especially love the call of "Kaki" when it echoes through the house.  Kaki is my grandma name and one I treasure. My ears are full of sounds and calls in any given day.  This weekend we had a brief cool spell and I spent the morning outside.  Doing nothing.  It was quite an experience...

B efore smart phones, movies-on-command and video games, we entertained ourselves outside.  We played games like Kick-the-Can, Hide and Seek, Simon Says, Red Rover and Follow-the-Leader. Those games were simple but fun.  They required cooperation by the entire neighborhood gang and they required that we played by the same rules.  In Follow-the-Leader, the steps of the follower had to exactly match the leader.  We looked down at our feet a lot to make sure we were stepping in the right places.  There wasn't too much talk or chatter about where we were going.  The chatter and giggling was about where to step...one step at a time. Ray and I were on the beach recently.  We go to the sugar sands of 30A in Florida as often as possible.  It's our refuge.  And as much as we relax and read, we also walk.  Walk for exercise and walk to think and explore.  And last week as we walked along the shore, where one creation meets another, the p...