You Are My Hiding Place

You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. Psalm 32:7 NKJ I can still feel the smooth, cool branches of the huge maple tree on my hands and legs as I shimmied up the limbs, familiar with each...

Jesus and Jelly Beans

I did not expect to wake up to the sound of jelly beans hitting the walls and windows. But as I sat up and blinked twice I realized it was true. Jelly beans were scattered across my bed and my father was running around our beds yelling, “There he goes! There he goes!”...

The Winter That Wasn’t

We New Englanders have been left in the perplexing position of having not much to complain about this winter…weather-wise. We will always complain about something. But this winter may go down, quietly, as the winter that wasn’t. A bizarre autumn blizzard...

Bruno’s Birthday

There wasn’t much to the Woodside cemetery back in 2002. It was January and the wind coming off the pond whipped across the barren hill leading up to the older graves. There were a few headstones scattered just above where I stood but the field around me was fairly...

No More Tears

The plane rose steadily above the North Carolina country until the visible details of life diminished into diffuse patches of green and brown farmland. “I’m not going to cry”, I silently challenged myself. I had stayed awake the night before, restless with dread....

The Family Tree

Adopted. The word leapt from the page and jolted me awake. It was 6:30 in the morning. I had guzzled a cup of coffee and was heading out the door to work when I decided to check my email. My sister had contacted me the day before with a photograph she found through an...