Seven months and counting. That is how long I have been away from home now, working in Mobile, Alabama, doing my thing or, what passes for “my thing” until I can really do my thing. I came in May and now it is almost January. I would ask where the time went, but a…
Tag: Family
The Greybeard Chronicles, Thanksgiving 2011: I Have Never Journeyed Alone
Dateline: Mobile, Alabama, Thanksgiving Day, 2011 And so it was in my fiftieth year, I spent my very first Thanksgiving Day alone. Some of my fondest memories, both from childhood and adulthood, center on this day. The sweetest people I have ever known, the finest food I have ever eaten, the best football I have…
The Greybeard Chronicles: 50 Years of Sowing and Reaping
Listen up, kids! A half century goes by faster than you think. One minute, you’re doing a cannonball in the Brazos River. The next, you’re praying your wife does not put fifty candles on that carrot cake: Not just because of the potential wildfire they may ignite or the fact that you could singe…
11 New Year’s Resolutions for 2011
Another fresh new year is here . . . Another year to live! To banish worry, doubt, and fear, To love and laugh and give! This bright new year is given me To live each day with zest . . . To daily grow and try to be My highest and my best!…
My First Devotional eBook Now Available: Get Yours Today!
Just Released! A Month of Sundays 31 Devotionals for Making Every Day the Lord’s Day ONLY $6.95 This is my very first ebook, and I am excited to tell you about it… A Month of Sundays is a collection of 31 original devotionals one for each day of even the longest month. Each…
West Ham United, Pretty Bubbles and The Still-Hopeful, Melancholy Soul
I was thinking about Dad this morning and singing a song he often sang, just out of the blue, just to break up the silence. The song goes like this: I’m forever blowing bubbles Pretty bubbles in the air They fly so high, they reach the sky Just like my dreams, they fade and…
My Double Dad Blessing: A Father’s Day Card
When it comes to dads, I have been doubly blessed. First, there is the Dad I had but never appreciated until it was too late. I wish I could wish him a happy Father’s Day as a son truly grateful for the man he is, rather than as a numb skull kid who had not…
April 5th, Granky Day: A Celebration of Life, Love, and Laughter
If everyone knew what a few of us do, April 5 would be a national holiday. We would call it “Granky Day.” Granky Day would be a celebration of all the precious women who have lived holy lives, but refused to be “holier-than-thou.” It would be a day to celebrate a woman who exuded radiant…
One Holy Moment: This Is My Body…Take, Eat | an Easter Devotional
An Easter Devotional Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, has always been a holy and solemn event to me, thanks largely to my grandfather. I would not say that Pastor Bill Henager (my mother’s father) and I had a good many bonding moments. Ours was not the kind of grandfather/grandson relationship that led to many fishing…
My Thanksgiving (All Of This and Ty)
I am thankful… For sorrows that pass me by For the cleansing of a simple sigh For Donya’s Pumpkin Pie (more almonds, please) And Ty I am thankful… For the memory of friendships past For Autumn (but it goes too fast) For my half-empty, half-full glass And Ty I am thankful… For tears I never…
The Law of the Jungle and the Law of Christ
Galatians 6:2,5 (NKJV) Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ… For each one shall bear his own load. From Rudyard Kipling’s timeless classic, The Jungle Book, comes this morsel of wisdom: “Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky; And the Wolf…
Pieces of Me
Tossing about in the bed last night, chasing the elusive slumber I so desperately sought, my mind wandered back to the places I have been and people I have seen the past couple of weeks. Weekend before last, Donya and I flew to Texarkana, Arkansas to spend a couple of days. There is only one…
Somewhere the Night
Somewhere the Night | D. Gene Strother Somewhere the Night Is still and quiet Somewhere the Dreamer Dreams Somewhere the Moon Shines big and bright Somewhere, not here it Seems Somewhere there’s Peace, Tranquility Somewhere the heart beats True Somewhere is where I Ought to be Somewhere, right there with You Somewhere the Night Is…
Saturday Nights Were Special
Dateline Dallas (and Mineral Wells) TX -Anybody else out there remember Saturday Night Wrestling from the Sportatorium in Dallas back in the 1970s? You do??? Cheers! Read on. If not, read on anyhow for some sweet memories you might yet make… So, I am checking FaceBook the other day and I see the note that…
Unbroken
I have just returned from a family gathering on my mother’s side. My Aunt Nelda and Uncle James hosted it on their gorgeous, sprawling west Texas ranch. They called it Camp Granky, in honor of my maternal grandmother (whom I named as a toddler when I could not manage calling her “Granny,” which my dad…
And Did She Fly?
There is a nagging pain inside me today. Yesterday, it finally happened. We loaded up her things and moved my Holly 150 miles down I-30 to Texarkana. Sure, it was time. She has paid her dues, gotten her education, worked hard to establish a life for herself, and now she is set to take flight….
Dad Day Redux
Yesterday marked the nineteenth Father’s Day since my Dad took a jarring, premature detour into eternity. I still miss him and often consider how different life might have been had he remained. I am sure I don’t think about that as much as Mom, but I think about it. He was a good dad…better than…
The Over/Under Man
What I do not overvalue I underestimate. I put that as my Facebook status this morning because the thought hit me like a subway train. I realized that much of what I am today – and where – could be explained by my either overvaluing or underestimating a thing or person. I never saw myself…
Hip Shots, Deux
Quirky is cool. Donya and I visited Gerty‘s, a little shop in one of those antique mall type settings (only this is not an antique mall; it is more of a collection of quirky shops, catering mostly to women), which Donya’s mom and three other ladies own. As I browsed the various shops while trying…
29
Twenty-nine. It is not a very sexy number, is it? Perhaps its only distinction is that it is one of only twenty-five prime numbers between one and 100. 29 isn’t cool like some of the other prime numbers. Take the number one, for instance. Every sports team, every salesman, every ambitious student wants to be…