Other Writing

Well, it’s time for Auld Lang Syne again. A new year is here. And after Christmas this writer found herself listening to the song a couple of times this week. My favorite versions are from Susan Boyle and Colbie Caillat. Listening got me thinking about this song so closely tied to New Year’s Eve – what’s it all about? Is it really about the new...

The modern-day version of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” by Casting Crowns, which is based on the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem of the same name, is one of my favorite Christmas songs. There’s just something about the song and its words of hope that literally resonate within my heart and bring to mind a special moment for me. Nine years...

Gifts should be used, not squandered. That’s what Lesley Manning’s grandmother would say. And Lesley didn’t want to believe it. Instead, she focused on her task at hand—washing dishes the restaurant’s breakfast crew “accidentally” left behind. Her shift at Mannie’s Bistro would begin soon, and she had to hurry. As Lesley dunked the dishes into...

I’ve had the privilege of flying over the Atlantic or “The Pond” quite a few times over the years, but the time I went in 2013 was extra special to me. For one, it was the first time overseas I’d ever visited the same place twice since I’d been there six years earlier at the exact same time of the year. So, when I disembarked the plane in...

Clink. Thud. Clink. Thud. The rhythmic sound of my trowel impacting earth littered with pebbles and weeds. I discarded the debris into a bucket at my feet. The sounds seemed to echo, momentarily filling the eerie silence of the cemetery. That kind of silence I hadn’t heard in years. Once, it had been my constant companion in a sea of sleepless...