Looking For An Amazing Relationship? Ask, Knock, Seek and Find I didn’t stumble across Isaiah 43 until I was in my 40s. It was a revelation: “Because you are precious in My eyes and I love you.” Foreign words, something you’d read in a romance novel. Said to someone else…

And Why I Wish She Hadn’t — I grew up on the Peninsula, just south of San Francisco, back in the 1960s and 70s. It was beautiful, and affordable back then, green hills rising into the Santa Cruz mountains, planes from San Francisco International taking off over the Bay, heading towards newly-built Foster City. We rode our…

New Location, New Life. Who Are You Anyway? — When my husband and I moved to New York, my new job involved commuting from Long Island to the Upper West Side, where I worked as a production coordinator for ABC. For a fourth-generation Californian, this was an entirely new lifestyle. My previous commute had been a short, carefree drive…

I spent years working as a cantor/church organist in the rural parish where my children grew up. Once they left home, I remarried and moved further north into the Catskill Mountains. There, my husband and I joined another little Catholic community “up the mountain.” They already had plenty of cantors…

Listened to the song by Train, Calling All Angels. I need them close, these celestial messengers. Once you experience the exhilarating presence of angels (and realize they’ll come when you ask) you’ll call them often. When I visit my oldest child, I pray for angels to accompany me on the…

But You Are The Prize: Choose Your Weapons — You are in a battle. The prize is your soul. Demons press in hard. Are you prepared to fight back? “Choose your weapons!” my oldest grandson bellows, challenging his siblings. They love to play at sword fighting. (Coincidentally, their parents met on the fencing team in college.) I keep a…

How Sir Ernest Shakleton, Charles Dickens and Mary Howitt helped me overcome years of abuse — Growing up in the 1970s, I was a library kid. It was the only safe place to hang out after school. There were bullies at home and more bullies at school. My parents were teachers; they worked hard all day. …

The blessings you receive, being there for someone else So much of my life is hidden. A secret club, a knowing smile, a few poignant words. I can walk up to another parent whose child/adult is going through a public meltdown and say, “My kid’s louder than yours,” and she’ll…

Until We Say “Enough” — What constitutes an emergency? A serious, unexpected event requiring immediate action. Something that constitutes an immediate risk to one’s health, life, property, and/or surroundings. A young man is bleeding profusely; he’s been stabbed or shot. An elderly woman falls in the supermarket, suffering a heart attack or stroke. There’s an…