Life by Grace Alone

Recently I was looking through some old papers and I found a paper I only barely remember writing. The piece focused on my maternal grandmother. My mother was the youngest of five children. Four of those five siblings died during or before their sixtieth year. When my grandmother died at the age of  ninety three, my mother was the only child left. Thirteen years later when we were visiting my mother, Steve and I made the short trip down what might be considered a major country road. When I was a child that was the route first to my grandmother's house and then to to the ocean. Many years ago a major highway that could better handle the heavy flow of traffic to the ocean was built parallel to the one we were traveling on. I wanted to again see the cemetery where my mother's family is buried. Our station wagon rounded the last curve and there it was. The white wooden church rested on top of a small hill. The grave markers lay spread out, on the other side of the little dirt r...

I saw a post on facebook where someone said Valentines Day is a fake holiday and he hates it. I wondered if his response was so strong because he has no one who fits the description of any heart filled card, no one to gift with just the right piece of  jewelry or box of chocolate delights. Perhaps I should have responded to my brother in Christ.  The wide spread celebration of Valentines Day  has more to do with card manufacturers and other retailers seeking to line their pockets than it has to do with St. V.'s noble acts. The holiday is often propelled by a desire for mutual sexual gratification, and an overwhelming love of "love". What disguises itself as love bears little resemblance to the real thing. One of the latest reality t.v. shows focuses on a couple where the woman has an over the top idea of a dream wedding. The themes of the weddings are things like The Wizard of Oz, The Phantom of the Opera, pirates, the Monopoly Game, and belly dancing.  The wedding...