V. starts the evening unsure and tidy, wearing a pressed button-up shirt under an approved uniform sweater bearing the school logo. This is a religious holiday, after all, and he has come as a guest to celebrate and honor the importance of the day. He comes into the kitchen to thank me for having him…

“Jesus wept.” The shortest passage in the bible, John 11:35. Jesus wept because he heard of the death of Lazarus, a man he knew and loved, a friend who was like family. Jesus wept out of love and grief, not out of doubt. Jesus wept because it is the human response to loss and sadness….

I confess: I’m a small science nerd. I’m not one to read books about the subject but I do love watching biological processes at work and taking note of the way the laws of physics govern our world. My love and fascination for enzymes, especially, has not faded. Enzymes are catalysts that expedite chemical reactions….

I watch as the red car with lightning bolts heads straight for the yellow car painted with the words “crash!” and “pow!” The drivers look devilishly at one another, pushing their little cars as fast as they will go, straight for one another. The drivers burst into laughter as the thick rubber bumpers around their…

Saturday night I closed my eyes to doze a bit while my husband, Derek, drove us home from a family gathering in Gainesville. I had been deep inside my mind, working on my sermon for the following morning. My brain was starting to quiet when I found myself suddenly singing, quietly at first then building….

Preface Note: Recently I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with my writing teacher and a group of marvelous women writers. While we were tucked into the mountains, our brothers and sisters in the Carolinas were preparing for hurricane Florence to make landfall. Our writing instructor asked us to connect with those fleeing the…

I spent my weekend with words. My writing teacher is a beautiful, eighty-something Greek woman who lives with a fire in her belly and a passion for words. Twice a year, a small group of dedicated women gather at Valle Cruces Conference Center to spend the weekend under her tutelage. She give us prompts then…

The morning of the first day of school, I stepped outside early to enjoy the crisp air before waking up our three kids. I welcomed the beautiful mountains and mist so typical of our magnificent Rabun County. Shimmering patches on our fence caught my eye and I walked over to investigate. The spiders had been…