October 1992 marked our first autumn living in Vermont. Up to that point, the farthest east I had been is Washington, D.C., and no farther north than Cooks Forest State Park in western Pennsylvania. But as the leaves began to change in late September and peak in early October, we…
I live in river country. A few blocks from our house flows the Rock River, coming down from the north and emptying into the Mississippi River about 40 miles away. My wife and I frequently walk a path that looks over the Rock. If we head the other direction, the…
It was the Spring of ’63 or ’64 at my Grandma K’s house in Avon Lake, Ohio. Not sure why, but if I recall correctly, my brother and I were staying with her for a few days. Perhaps it was 1963, and mom had reached the midpoint in her pregnancy…
Sitting by the window overlooking a swath of woods, my eyes scan the mostly bare trees, their branches a dark gray silhouetted against a light gray sky. It’s one of those gloomy November days when the sun’s been hiding since night faded into pale light, and color seems to have…
One of the things I wanted to do during the semi-isolationism of the COVID-19 pandemic was to watch the 1993 movie Gettysburg, based on Michael Shaara’s historical novel, The Killer Angels. I own the DVD, but the movie is a long one—about four hours—and viewed best in one sitting; consequently,…
Several years ago our family went on a camping trip in the Adirondack Mountains in New York. We were novices at the whole outdoor adventure thing, so it was a bit overwhelming trying to decide which of the plethora of hikes to do near the campground where we were staying….
I recently had the opportunity to attend a ministry conference in Riverside, California—about 30 miles east of Los Angeles. I was warned that it would be hot and dry, and indeed it was for two of the three full days I was there. That didn’t deter me from taking my…
