Magical Memoir Moments

Julia and Chelsea, granddaughter and daughter-in-law.

A Christmas Miracle

Christmas miracles come in many forms. This Christmas my sister Linda’s gift to our Mother seemed to personify the very meaning of Christmas itself.

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Alpenglow. Dec. 15, 2015, Harrisonburg, Virginia

The Gift of Peace — Sacred Pauses — in a Frenzied Season

In the midst of holiday frenzy, how do you find peace? This post invites you to take a Sacred Pause. Stop. Look. and Listen.

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Deception Pass, Whidbey Island, WA

When the Lights Went Out: Finding Inner Light on Whidbey Island

When you write, what do you need most? A room of one’s own? Water? An enchanted forest? Great food? A friend? Electricity? Wait! What? You need electricity to write? The fourteen of us who were lucky enough to attend the workshop Writing Spirit, Writing Faith: A Week with Mary Potter were blessed by all of…

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Taken the last day of our visit, Marea del Portillo, Cuba, by Don Warnick.

Cars in Cuba: Why Do We Love Them so Much?

What was your first car? If you were born before 1960, or your first car was an old one, you might find one like it in Cuba today. Of all the things Cuba is famous for — Communism, cigars, music, beaches, night life — none seems to equal the emotional response that vintage cars evoke….

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Nurse employed at the resort Club Amigo in Marea del Portillo. Photo by Tina Glanzer.

In Search of the “Real” in Cuba: A Pictoral Journey

When I travel, I love to meet people in their homes and observe their daily lives. I know that I can’t experience “authentic” culture in a short trip, but I look for opportunities  to make real human contact. Below are some people I met in Cuba in settings that took me back in time as…

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The Bee Hummingbird as Angel of Annunciation

My most memorable moment in Cuba, Oct. 21-Nov. 4, lasted less than 15 seconds. I wasn’t expecting it, hoping for it, praying for it. But there it was, right in front of me, first hovering, then diving right past my left shoulder. Two other hummingbirds buzzed in the tree above. I was alone on the…

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I'm on the left. My cousin Mary Ann's on the right. Probably about 1952.

From Bathtub to Cuba

You already know how exotic any body of water is to a farm kid. Not only did we not go to the ocean when I was growing up, we used the crudest of substitutes: Later our bathtub expanded to a farm pond. As you read these words, I will be exploring south eastern Cuba with…

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Gliding, Swinging, and Proposing: Love in Motion

My father proposed to my mother while they sat on a porch glider. Stuart popped the question on a double seated swing. Forty-six years later, love is motion.

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Reading Rumi by candle light.

Wild Nights! Wild Nights!

“Poetry will make your life infinitely better,” said a teacher. “Take it with you in your heart and in your backpack.” Most students scoffed. This week five friends, ones who believed the teacher, converged on a country road and moved into a meadow Up the hill they went with one purpose: to read poems to…

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Witnessing for Peace: Then and Now

Where have all the protests gone? A visit to Washington, DC, illustrates the change from the protest May 9, 1970, to the current “war is not the answer” signs in front of the White House.

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