Sometimes it take a while to follow up on good intentions. Long ago while en route to our oldest nephew’s graduation on Long Island, we stopped for a couple hours at the visitor’s center at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After also taking a brief self-guided car tour of nearby war monuments, we had to depart. As we…
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I’ve been hacked. Or at least my personal information has. Not because I was careless, but because people “safeguarding” this sensitive personal data were asleep at the switch. The problem started in 2013, when I visited a skin specialist to examine potential trouble spots on my chest and back. He also found one on my…
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The August issue of Charisma marks the magazine’s 40th anniversary. Writing a number of the stories on 40 spiritual leaders featured in it represented a trip down Memory Lane. The journey included a surprise: in working on the new stories, I discovered I had written about several of these folks for the 20th anniversary issue…
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One of the pleasures of vacation is taking a break from checking email, looking at a computer, or otherwise keeping up with the world. And, thanks to a crammed pre-vacation work schedule, we had missed the announcement of New York’s ticker tape parade for the U.S. women’s soccer team. So the day of the parade…
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Like many churches nationwide, ours has home groups (often called cell groups) that meet twice a month on Sunday evenings, with breaks during July and December. Once per “semester,” each group tackles some form of community outreach. This spring ours decided to visit a home that offers a combination of assisted living and skilled nursing…
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It’s been nearly a year since I started using a blend of essential oils to help deal with the lingering effects of back pain sustained through a serious injury in 2013. Not only am I happy that I made the discovery that these oils could have health benefits, today I am even more positive in…
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I realize I’m dating myself, but I remember when this time of year brought widespread recommendations in various media about good “summer reads.” Namely, enjoyable books that one could take to the beach or other vacation outings. However, to put The Harbinger in the good-read-for-summer category strikes me as a bit of an insult. The…
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Several more days and it will be July. The peak of summer used to frustrate me. Hard to get much work when everyone is on vacation, or at the beach, or disappearing for a week around the Fourth of July. No longer. I have learned to love the coming month, if for no other reason…
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I eat lunch regularly with a pair of 20-somethings. Not only do I want to act as an informal mentor, I want to stay in touch with the younger generation and avoid turning into an old fogey—a fate I’ve seen befall too many seniors. Something I’ve noticed about my younger companions is that neither carries…
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