Sharing Circle

It had rained all day and I was restless, pacing back and forth and going from room to room. I was wondering why, if foster parents were needed so badly, we had not been called for a placement.

The ringing phone interrupted my thoughts. A social worker was calling because they needed a home right away for two school age children. She said she realized we had said we would only take one child to begin our journey into foster care but this was a brother and sister and since they would be in school all day would I please take both? (more…)

We had moved into a new neighborhood in West Virginia several years ago. We had bought a nice two story brick home and a backyard full of trees. We were excited to have moved closer to the job my husband, Jeff, had transferred to. We didn’t know what we were in for.

I had a couple of garage sales, usually one in the fall and another in the spring. I thought nothing of it. It was a way to get rid of stuff the kids had outgrown and have money to shop for them again. (more…)

Rancho de Chimayo

Many years ago (1973 to be exact) I was temporarily living in the US with my parents while my father was working over here. I was 18 and we had the opportunity that summer to travel around a little. We were living in Oklahoma City at the time so our trip basically included exploring Texas and New Mexico. Although I enjoyed Texas it was New Mexico that really stuck in my mind as I think it did with all of us. (more…)

My mother’s mother, Elsie Jayne Taylor Naylor, was an interesting woman, who also had a remarkable faith in God. She passed that down to all of us who came after her, including my mother.

She was also a remarkably practical woman in many more ways than I knew when she was alive. If you had known her, you might have been tempted to dismiss her as a simple country woman who didn’t know much about the world. (more…)

For a lot of people, it can be incredibly  difficult to “share from the heart.” Fear often gets in the way. Concerns about being judged harshly, thoughts like “Perhaps what is in my heart is “really” bad,“  and all sorts of other fears can keep us from being able to feel comfortable talking about what is in our deepest hearts and minds.

The truth of the matter is that part of what creates tension in relationships, and in our lives, are often the things that are in our lives which we don’t share, for whatever reason. (more…)