It’s time for new beginnings…a time to roll the calendar and the insurance deductible over and to start your taxes and crank up the heat while you look forward to the big spring thaw. But for me, the new year has always been a time of looking back on the good and the bad of the previous seasons. It’s nice to see how we’ve survived and even thrived over the last 365 days. 2017 was …

GENESIS 1:27-28 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” JUDGES 4:4-5 4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.5 She held court under the Palm …

I’ve done the printables – the bucket lists in a kaleidoscope of colors for every season of the year. I’ve used all the ink in my printer on reminders to carve a pumpkin and make spiced cider and go see Christmas lights and make homemade popsicles and wish on a dandelion. Now I’m done. Mainly because one of two things always happens: Either the list goes on the fridge and waves in the breeze of …

Happy little trees. Who wouldn’t want to live in a world full of happy little trees—branches waving as you pass by, the sun always slanted at the right angle, and life rolling on like a lazy river? Bob Ross lived this way, both in life and in art. And in the 80s and early 90s, if you tuned in to PBS on any given Saturday, his happiness could make you happy too. And though he …

MARK 6: 30-32 30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” 32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. MARK 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus …

“There is no evidence on EEG to indicate abnormal activity or an active epilepsy. Assuming he has not had any seizures since I last saw him, we can proceed as planned to reduce the seizure medications,” so says our doctor, the expert. Whenever I hear the phrase “abnormal activity,” it sends me back to the good old X-Files days with Scully M.D. muttering over “paranormal activity” as Mulder scrambles down into some huge alien footprint. …

GENESIS 3:22-23  22And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.  PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name …

The Netflix documentary “Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond,” chronicles Jim Carrey’s role as Andy Kaufman in “Man on the Moon” where Carrey stayed in character as Andy on and off the set. He wore the clothes, did the voice, held the attitude. In short, he was the biggest, weirdest, most antagonistic comic genius he could be. Until the producers told him to stop. Turns out you can’t live like that for long. You can’t …

And this is what I want to say to the parents of his future peers as we head toward kindergarten next year with a whole new set of kids who may or may not have ever been around a kid like mine: “Please keep inviting us. We can’t always make it work like we’d hope and sometimes we will have to say no, but whatever you do, don’t stop asking. Because he’s like any kid. …

ISAIAH 7:14 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. MATTHEW 1:22-23 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). I am not a patient person. I think perhaps this is because I am a worrier. …