A friend of mine recently shared a saying his great-grandfather used to always say. It sounds similar to the sayings of all great-grandfathers, but it went something like this: “Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.” ~ Everett Taylor Thomas was one of Jesus’ disciples, according to the accounts […]
Tag: joy
The Negative and the Positive
Did you know that if one person says something negative, it can take between 3 and 40 positive comments to outweigh it? For every bad thing, it takes several more good things to counter it. The vast difference in that ratio seems to be because while scientists have studied the idea, they can’t agree on […]
Nature sings
As I type this on a Sunday April afternoon, listening to harp music by Kristan Toczko on Spotify, snow is falling outside my front room window. For awhile, my big black cat Inigo was watching it fall in between his more covert observances of the birds at the feeder outside the other window, though now […]
Why are you weeping?
Small bells, made for children’s hands, clamored joyously from the front of the sanctuary as the congregation sang a simple hymn about knowing Jesus loves them. The sound was effervescently exuberant, melding magically and shining brightly despite a bit of discord in the melody. The kids, ever hopeful, were making a joyful noise for those […]
There will be poor always…..
Holy Week is almost upon us. For those of you who are secular and may not know, that’s the week that falls between Palm Sunday and Easter. It’s a time for solemnity and devotion. It’s a time for reflection and even traditions. This time of year, I am always reminded of the rock opera Jesus […]
Walls and gates
My mind is often filled with random thoughts that come and go over the course of any given day. One of those thoughts, put in my head by a dear friend this past Sunday, was “what are the purposes of walls and gates?” So of course, me being me, I read a great deal about […]
From tragedy…. hope
Last week, I wrote a blog post about how my community was blindsided by a heinous and seemingly senseless tragedy. I’m not going to get into the details because I am aware that they can trigger some of my readers, but if you are truly curious, here is one of the news links. The story […]
Deep Questions
I have noticed, throughout the years, that most kids ask a great many questions. They are relentless in their quest to understand how the world works and why it works that way. They are constantly trying to challenge the ways of the world as they challenge their own selves. They are insatiable in their need […]
Repent
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season in the Christian calendar. For many, it is a time of reflection and fasting, to give up something. It’s a time to test one’s self-discipline or take up a way to better one’s self. It’s a time to remember and to repent. Repent. Like fellowship […]
Voices in our heads
I joke that a great deal of my stories are voices in my head yelling out their stories, hoping I will go ahead and finally write what they are saying. These voices are, for the most part, harmless and a part of my imagination I embrace wholeheartedly. After all, I wouldn’t have my Portals Series […]
K. S. Wood Writes 