Relationships & Spirituality
Stories about relationships, emotional and spiritual well-being
My Firsthand Experience with the 2021 Polar Vortex
by Joshua Levy We want to provide our children with the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter. So, what happens when one or more of those needs is threatened by a traumatic event such as a weather catastrophe? Beginning on Thursday February 11, 2021 such a...
Broadway During the Pandemic
By Kathy Strain I have been lucky to wear many hats during my lifetime that have fulfilled me and brought me joy. But the hat of serving as a contributing editor for an international website called Broadway World (https://www.broadwayworld.com/author/Kathy-Strain) has...
Sisters by Choice: Sister Chiefs
By Rochelle Dornatt “Sisters are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.” “Not sisters by blood, but sisters by heart.” Life on Capitol Hill was Rochelle Dornatt’s life. She loved (mostly) every minute of the almost three...
Uncle Lutz
by Ruth Anne Wood My friend Lutz (82) strung up and tuned my new violin the day it arrived in mid December 2020. He started playing violin as a boy in Germany and smuggled it out of his birthplace. He still plays in an orchestra, folk song society and Gilbert &...
More Than I Can Handle
by Staci Bell It has been said many times, to many hurting people, from many well-meaning people, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” It has even been quoted as Scripture. It’s not in the Bible. Not even close. When I think about my dad walking home from...
Pen Pals for Life
By Betsy Ruffin They met through an ad and had a long-distance relationship for over 60 years before finally meeting. No, it is not a romance story. It is a friendship story and involves my mother and me. In 1934, my mother, Lona, then 12-years-old, noticed an ad for...
Family History Uncovers Holocaust Ties-Part 2
by Mark Lehman We Have a Tree in Israel – the Journey of Miriam and Davida ‘The fruits of the olive tree only gives its oil when pressed, and the Children of Israel are only brought back to the right path by travails.’ Talmud Offerings 23 In the waning days of World...
Family History Uncovers Holocaust Ties
by Mark Lehman Writers note: In November the world remembers the anniversary of Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass. By many historians this was considered the first public demonstration of Adolph Hitler’s plan to annihilate the Jewish population in Europe....
From Parenthood to Grandparenthood: When A New Leaf Blossoms On Your Family Tree
By Edie Weinstein As I am writing this piece, I just returned home from a baby Tylenol run for my now 7-month-old grandson Dean. He is just beginning to cut teeth and he is quite vocal about letting my son and daughter-in-law know that he is not pleased with the new...
What Is Your Legacy?
By Edie Weinstein My friend Lisa Gidholm issued this invitation yesterday and it was one I couldn’t decline since death has been on my mind a great deal lately. “I am looking for a Volunteer....
Altruism and The Common Good
By Edie Weinstein You’re standing in a supermarket checkout line with a basket full of groceries and you notice the person behind you attempting to juggle five or six items while calming a crying toddler who is way past nap time....
Cognitive Dissonance in Chaotic Times
by Edie Weinstein World events are unfolding at a breakneck pace, rendering even the most psychologically stable people on the verge of emotional dysfunction. Each day upon awakening, the news feed is filled with stories of death and destruction. While it’s true that...
Did Someone Say New Normal?
by Edie Weinstein Among the terminology added to the vernacular in the past few months in the face of COVID-19, along with ‘flattening the curve,’ ‘social distancing,’ and ‘essential businesses,’ is ‘new normal’. The first time I heard that phrase was when I was in...
God Has Got This
,by Misty Raley Gassaway When I was 11, I got bullied for my pale skin, gross glasses, big forehead, sensitivity & excessive smiling. Random, but a very specific list. #mistymusings It was a rough environment and the haters didn’t mess around. School had a pretty...
What They Call Me, What I Answer To
By Mame Kwayie In retrospect, we’d probably crossed a professional boundary. But I wanted the insight, so I kept our conversation going. I was in my early twenties, working as a communications director in San Antonio, and chatting with a presenter before one of my...
Our Blessing, Our Grace
By Stephanie Schoonover A few months after we married, Andy and I learned our prayers for our family had been answered. I was pregnant and we were ecstatic. Aside from afternoon fatigue my pregnancy seemed to be going smoothly until our 12 -week anatomy scan. We...
Grateful for God’s Blessings
Letter Written During the Flu Pandemic in 1918 – Part 2 “Grateful for God’s Blessings” By Mark Lehman Several weeks ago, the Shoebox Chronicles (http://shoeboxchronicle.wordpress.com) published a 1919 letter written by my great Aunt Milly to her twin sister Martha...
My Butterfly Summer
By Nancy Amos I don’t think I ever really sat still—in the last 67 years. There were so many adventures if I would just get up and do them. And I so loved my job, my work—as I called it—that I would put in the long days and carry work at home for nighttime. I believed...