Stories

Because this blog now consists primarily of quotes from saints (what could be better?), I am sometimes asked "where have all the stories gone?" They're still here, and a click on titles below will lead to reflections as well as a few bits of undiluted nonsense.  These are posted in random order.

Thanks for spending a little time here today!


Oh, The Scrapes We Have Seen!

"When a student misbehaved, Sister would swoop toward the child 'with her beads swinging!'  Or so my mother had warned me, using a tone of apocalyptic doom... This, to me, was thoroughly exciting.... I waited until Sister was looking directly at me, I made sure to catch her eye, and I took my fat long wooden pencil and carved as hard as I could onto the top of my desk...."




Awards, Kisses, and UH OH!  SHARKS!

This is a post about some of my earliest romances. (you know you want to know) "My first kiss was in the springtime.... He leaned in close to ask 'can I kiss you goodnight?'  I gazed into his deep brown eyes and uttered the most romantic words I could think of........" 




 
The Four Dwarf Cold

"Today I noticed that I have a cold.  Not just any cold, mind you, but a genuine four-dwarfer. My husband and I began long ago to weigh our colds on the dwarfiness-scale... Sneezy arrived at my house this very morning.  Sleepy is here as well....."






Blue Velvet Ribbons on Purple Cake 

"I often sang along with the radio in my preteens. Never mind that I was a far from engaging vocalist. Never mind that I was shockingly oblivious to lyrics as well. I croaked along merrily with a soft ballad describing 'white on white, lace on satin, blue velvet ribbons on purple cake...'  'Doesn't that sound like the ugliest wedding cake ever?!,' I tsk-tsked, never questioning the validity of my perceptions...." 




Letting go of Splinters
"While I cannot alter what others say about someone, I can definitely choose what I do or do not share, and with whom. I can begin by checking my motives when I'm tempted in this area.  Am I feeling jealous?  Threatened?  Angry?  Inferior?  Afraid?..." 

We Dare Not Speak Without Honey

"Most people don't realize who they're quoting when they speak of catching more flies with honey than with vinegar....."

That Pre-Lent Peatzah

"Once upon a time in America, there were seven food groups. Meat, alphabet soup, peanut butter, Twinkies, school lunches, Cheerios, and jam... If anyone had uttered a weird phrase such as 'tonight we're having fast food,' we would have figured we'd forgotten it was Lent. That all changed with pizza pie..." 





See? This is What I'm Doing 

"See? This is what I have been doing...all that time when you were struggling, suffering, worrying.  Just look at the beauty I have drawn from that. Notice how I've blended light into the shadows....  See how I continue to work, to contour...."






Portrait of a ... Saint?

"I am called to be with God forever in heaven - that is sainthood.... I am called to be holy and good and dead to self on earth.  But how easy it is to say 'I want to be a saint' when I sit in perfect comfort. What a different story when the tiniest little thing crosses the rosy self-made path I've envisioned and the flames of sacrifice nip at my will...."





Interrupted by Glory

"Mary was living a quiet, hidden life.... Then one day an angel appeared to her, and with that Holy Interruption Mary’s life was changed forever..... As we know, there was a Birth. There were shepherds tending their flocks, and again an angel appeared. A night of sheep-watching was interrupted....The change was so shattering that mankind took notice....  God Himself had split the heavens... " 




Is There Room?
"The inn in Bethlehem was not filled with 'bad' people on the night Mary and Joseph arrived seeking shelter.  It had no room for the holy family only because others had gotten there first. Does Jesus find little space in some of my days simply because the hours fill up with everything else first?..."





Linus and Lessons

"Not being the person responsible for getting everyone everywhere anymore, I take these years of  grandma-time to listen for the lessons. I have found they are all around me. Linus, for instance, gave me a lesson on new year's day..."

The Prayer, The Answer, The Plane

"I had never met anyone "interesting" on a plane. That changed the day I decided to say a prayer...."







GOSH

A Golden Moments Award, and the 10 most golden moments of my life. "Every one of the above moments was holy. Every single one was a marvelous work of God. It would not be a complete package, however, if I didn't mention one moment that was utterly life-changing....."

Keeping Things in Perspective

"In a study of perspective, the vanishing point is that spot to which all things are directed.  Everything in the picture is geared toward that point... We look to things of earth, goals in this life, as our vanishing points. But the only true and unchanging vanishing point is in eternity...." 

He Has Been Waiting All Along

"Yesterday I again wrestled myself into prayer.  I'm ashamed to admit how long it took me to get there, but finally I struggled through the day's distractions to find myself in front of an open Bible. I looked at the page only to see what seemed like a spattering of random words. What, whenever, surpassing, things, count, that, for. This was worse than usual...."




The House at the Back of My House
"I find the sight of smoke billowing from its chimney downright neighborly.  But what caught my attention in a moment of prayer was the realization that, whether I see it or not, the building remains.  The presence of the house is an objective fact...."






Go Through the Motions 

"I sometimes must wrestle myself into prayer. It often seems that I'm waging an all-out battle against distractions, laziness, daydreams, aridity, and sudden inexplicable desires to latch onto any shiny bit of trivia that will keep me from praying..." 

It Worked

"Reading a marvelous blog post last night, I immediately thought of Bunny. When this beloved grandchild of mine was three, she sometimes had trouble with tantrums..."

Hush

"I am enchanted by snow when it softens a city.  It's like the gentleness of God blanketing all that is sharp and angular, and somehow this is magical to me.  Maybe that's because, in grade school, I rode the city bus twice a day...."






God is Here

"Sometimes I ask myself what I would do if Jesus Christ walked into the room where I am right now.... After all, the thought of Christ being right here is not an imaginary exercise. It is reality. God is present. He is here..."






The Gift of Right Now

"In each moment, I am given a new opportunity. A fresh, shining, precious chance to at least speak to God when I think of Him...."







Why a Breadbox?
"My writing began at a breadbox. Mother’s metal breadbox, 1950s vintage with a pull-down front door - it made a dandy mailbox. Just the right receptacle for letters to Paul..."






A Pattern for the Pebbles

"St. Stephen's pattern for dealing with stones is just as much a pattern for the pebbles. Look to God. Pray. Forgive. And God stands ready with what we need...."  







My Visitations

"Two women, two relatives, greeted one another. It was something that happened all the time. No one watching would have shouted out: 'Quick!  Come see!  Here's a scene that will be written about in the Bible!..."






Old Stamp Collectors

"'Old stamp collectors never die,' I said to a friend one evening;'they just get returned to Sender.'  She immediately popped back with: 'Nancy, that was first class....'" 







The Martyrdom of Me

"I don't mind suffering!  Physical distress, poverty, pain:  none of these bother me at all, as long as I'm not inconvenienced or uncomfortable...."  







I Grew up Wealthy. Did I Mention That?

" I would be remiss if I hoarded my stash of baby-boomer-treasures and refused to hand them on. In a world that seems to be sliding ever further from the wealth of creativity, simplicity.... and most of all, truth and morality and integrity... I don't intend to be stingy.  I intend to pay the Truth forward.  I intend to pass it on...."

This Cloud of Witnesses
"Inching my vehicle through a sudden snowstorm, I panicked when the car's back started to fishtail.  I panicked anew as I watched a school bus skid through a stop sign and spin totally around in the intersection.  I had a small child waiting for me eight miles from my home, but could I reach him safely..?" 





Noticing

"We don't have to flee to woods or seashore to find touches of God's amazing handiwork.  A marvel might be right before our eyes, if we only look out a window and notice what is there..."







1,000 Dimensions

"Everything I'd imagined about the sea was true. The only shock was in discovering how much MORE there was to it. The three-dimensionality of it.  The engagement of senses I'd never thought would be called into service. Sometimes I compare my love of the sea to love of God...."





Ever After

"Enter the Savior.  Not because someone dreamed Him up in order to make of this life a fairy tale; I'm convinced the truth is just the opposite.  Writers of fairy tales and legends knew/know in their hearts that this was how the real story is meant to be...."




The Treasure in the Old Bookshop

It always brought out my inner Nancy Drew.....