Short stories and photos shared with humor and love
I’m enjoying an extended, coast-to-coast run of LaLa-palooza that opens in New Jersey with two darling divas, and closes with the LA debut of another rising star. I’m in my grandma era. That means I pay closer attention to this crazy old world because I want to preserve its best assets for them. It also [...]
My sister Kathy sent me a video clip earlier this week, and I have been playing it ever since. Music doesn't just set a mood, it pretty consistently improves it. When that music is also a prayer, it can really swell your heart. My blog earlier this week about "the Prayer" reminded Kathy that my [...]
My Ukrainian grandma baked paska every year. She included a loaf in the Easter basket she hauled to the church for its annual blessing, and she sent us one too, along with apricot cookies and walnut rolls. Baba packed her care packages with surgical precision and matriarchal devotion. When those brown paper packages tied up [...]
Father Bill opened his Easter homily with a 2011 video of Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion singing "the Prayer" at Central Park. It was an unusual move for a priest who loves words so much he regularly writes his own poetry and prayers. On this holiest of Sundays, though, Father Bill let that beautiful song [...]
The lights flickered a bit yesterday as a frozen rain pelted the windows and a steady stream of fire trucks raced by. Spring storms in Wisconsin can be particularly challenging. An icy sarcophagus traps budding branches and sends them crashing to the ground. Broken limbs lay across streets all over town and leave jagged edges [...]