You should meet Harold Johnson. I visit him whenever I can and it’s always an event. Harold Johnson is one of the patriarchs of our church. He has a neat apartment in a retirement home in nice part of Grand Rapids. He is a prayerful godly man. He’s been a part of the church I […]
Peanut Butter for Thanksgiving
To me the ultimate feeling of well-being is sitting down to a holiday meal with the family all around the table. It is especially sweet at Thanksgiving. No one cooks for you quite like your own wife. Over the years your tastes move in the direction of her gifts and her dishes move in the […]
When You Stumble
My mother taught me to walk briskly wherever I go. She said that way people know you are not interested in foolishness. Dad walked so fast I always had to jog to keep up with him. When you walk that way it leaves people with the impression that you’re up to something important and that […]
When Bumped
Things are not always as they appear. The whole thing played itself out before my eyes. Her husband did not want her to walk all the way in from the parking lot so he dropped her off at the main entrance. She was a pleasant-looking woman, nicely groomed and conservatively dressed. She was planning to […]
Loudenville Street Fair
Autumn breaks the stranglehold of summer’s heat. The corn dries and the fields slowly turn from green to golden. Birds flock and fly south. The air becomes clear and the sky bluer. The last flowers of the season bloom and farm markets spill over with bounty. Grains await the harvest forming a patchwork quilt of […]
Empire Bluff
The camp where I am speaking is set under pines at the base of the beautiful Leelanau Peninsula. When I finished my chapel message the other night the campers all headed off to their cabins. The sun was still over the tops of the trees in the western sky. I made a spontaneous decision to […]
Small Town Security
Our neighborhood is peaceful this evening. It is a cool fall evening and I write at a table in front of the widow of our upstairs bedroom. Occasionally a car purrs by. After it passes the sound of crickets returns.
Between Memorial Day and Labor Day
Memorial Day and Labor Day are the bookends of summer. This morning I found a couple old journal entries I had written about twelve years ago. The first one was written at the end of the day on Memorial Day, the second was written after I put the children to bed on on Labor Day.
The Pain of Rejection
The first girl I ever bought a flower for was named Violet. She lived in northern Ohio. I met her at summer camp in Greenfield, Ohio. We exchanged many letters and a few phone calls. I drove north to visit her at Christmas time. For a Christmas gift I bought her a beautiful leather study […]
Walt on Learning-Styles
In the third grade we moved to a little School in Quincy, Ohio and I was enrolled in Mrs. Short’s third grade class. She took it upon herself to teach me numbers” Now, I have nothing against numbers, nor did I initially dislike Mrs. Short. (I was an affable sort even in my childhood), but […]