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Rain falls on the tin roof outside my office window. No snow tonight; it is not even in the forecast for the week. Nevertheless, I am thinking of snow as I have been reading Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Since summer, I have been meandering...
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In her Writers Circle article, “Reflections on Tutor Humility ,” Amanda Butler imperatively exhorted tutors to embrace humility for “humility allows tutors to support families in a mentoring relationship, humility permits honesty to permeate the lessons in the classroom, and humility invites the Holy Spirit to do His...
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I was missing out. Something prompted my daughter to address my ignorance and she played for me the Gangnam Style music video. A multitude of cultural references suddenly made sense. I could finally laugh at the joke, a joke that I previously failed to recognize. We must avoid such...
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“When the going gets tough, the tough get going!” This quote by Joseph Kennedy, father of President John F. Kennedy, urges the soul under attack to hunker down and work harder, putting forth extra effort to battle adversity. The pithy sentiment, designed to inspire a perseverance mentality, often encourages...
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May I ask you a question? As a mom, I am good at that: “Are you up yet?” “Do you need some help?” “Why did you leave that here?” “Is your throat sore?” “When will you be back?” “Do you call that clean?” As a homeschool mom of two...
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We helped some friends of ours find a private college for their son a couple of years ago. I helped negotiate a deal with the Vice President of Enrollment. The school agreed to accommodate the amount the parents were able to spend. All that was left to do was...
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Charlie Brown never kicked a football held by Lucy Van Pelt; somehow he fell for her deception every time. She made a fool of him. I feel sorry for Charlie and I comfort myself in knowing that I could never be so effectively and repeatedly deceived. At least I...
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On the flight into Raleigh to deliver my son to Mandala Fellowship, I shared with him the printout of a poem I had just discovered, “The Church-porch,” by George Herbert (1593-1633). It is the first of three parts of a larger work called The Temple. My son was impressed no...
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Another year has begun and, again, I am directing a Challenge program. I have tracked my seasons which have been positive, delightful, and always different. My current Challenge II group has already met twice and this week we completed our first biology experiment. Historically, this is the approximate time...
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Imagine a banquet hall with a long table staggering under the weight of varied foods. Imagine a night filled with music, laughter, and stories. Imagine reasoned discourse about the issues of the day and about the nature of man. In the not too distant past, people gathered to celebrate...
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Last week, in celebration of our twenty-seventh anniversary, my wife and I spent a couple of nights at a bed and breakfast in Black Mountain, NC. The whole town treated us like home folks and we really needed it. We experienced car trouble as soon as we arrived in...
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When I was in high school, one of my favorite attention-getting quotations came from the famous German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): “Without my morning coffee, I’m just like a dried-up piece of roast goat.”1 Reciting this line was guaranteed to generate, if not a laugh, at least a look...
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