Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday. For one thing, it’s become so commercial, with its orange plastic turkeys and pumpkins, not to mention the tinsel of Christmas that started way back at Hallowe’en, that you can hardly remember to offer thanks. It’s ugly. I want beauty, kindness, thoughtful stillness,...
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“Just be yourself. Everyone else is taken!” Oscar Wilde In this day and age where we all have to “become someone” in order to be seen or noticed, I have come to love this quote! Just be me, myself, and I. Yet while this seems simple enough I realize...
I come from a long line of “believers” (in Jesus Christ), and for all of those people who shared their faith stories with me, I am eternally grateful! I was christened in my grandmother’s christening gown when I was six weeks old at the First Methodist Church in Andalusia,...
“Writing is a form of therapy: sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in a human situation.” Graham Greene October, and again we have the pleasure of frightening ourselves...
“Look, the trees are turning,” she said, glancing out the picture window toward the New Hampshire woods, and everything in me wanted to cry out: Not yet! Too soon! September marks the beginning of the new year. The children are back at school, anxious or excited, happy with their...
My faith journey began on Great Grandmother’s farm in the Hemet Valley of southern California. The Valley lay at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains which seemed a three or four minute walk to the left down Meridian Street which fronted the property but in truth lay some...
By Sophy Burnham ——–While working in the garden, I began to muse on how humans are the only animals (at least that we know of) who can live in both past and future. True an earthworm has a one-second precognitive response before it’s cut in two , and to...
Summertime, and the living is easy. Our cultural memories are rich with summertime: the slap of a screen door to the excited calls of children; of dozing in a hammock over a good book or casting a fishing line onto the black river; of days on the beach, ice...
There is a saying in the 12-step Alcoholic Anonymous program that “You will not regret the past, nor wish to close the door on it.” And mostly this is true, except when I find myself awake in the darkest hours of a morning night defenseless against the Inner Judge...
If you get lost in life, put your ear to the ground and listen to its pounding heart. Old Sami saying As I write this one cold and windy March, I find myself longing for April springtime, with the flowers blooming yellow, pink, and blue against green...
The month of March is said to come in like a lion and out like a lamb, and as I write this, longing for lambs and warmth, the temperature with wind-chill here in the mid-Atlantic hovers in the low double digits, expecting yet more snow and the same dreary,...
1 onion, chopped 1 T. butter 3 (14 oz. cans) chicken broth 1 (32 oz.) frozen hash browns (diced, not shredded) 1 (10 oz. can) Cream of Celery soup 1 (10 oz. can) Cream of Chicken soup 1 1/2 cups milk 1 lb. Velveeta cheese Bacon bits (optional)...
A couple of nights ago I had this interesting dream of a couple of hanging pots with beautiful clover (or Shamrocks) trailing over the edge of each pot. The stems of each clover were connected to each other, with several of them being being next to each other. This...
In dark December, when everyone was talking about harking to angels, and the birth of the Baby and the return of the Light, the Atlantic Monthly published a story about demonic possession. (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arcive/2018/23/catholic-exorcisms-on-the-rise/573943.) An acquaintance made sure I saw it: “I know you write about angels,” he wrote. “What...
Not long ago a Canadian wrote me about a mysterious encounter he’d had with a homeless man, Helmut, who always carried in his shopping bags spiritual books, herbs, treats and notebooks, and you could imagine that many people thought this ragged man was probably a little crazy. But Helmut...
Ingredients: 1 Cup of sugar 1/4 Cup flour 1/8 tsp. nutmeg 1/2 Cup butter (1 stick) 1 recipe for plain pastry or 2 Pillsbury Pie Crusts (1 pkg.) 4 large fresh peeled peaches (when in season) 1/4 Cup water Mix sugar, flour, nutmeg. Cut in butter until “crumbly”. Sprinkle...
This is the season for harkening to angel songs, believing—even joyfully—the warmth, comfort, healing and optimism offered by the angels, the sense that everything is goingto be all right, and that with all our doubts, inadequacies and fears we, too, are all right. We are perfect just the way...
It is Thanksgiving week, and I am late with offering my few words before the T-Day feast of gladness that we are called to, because in the last weeks it feels as if all I’ve done is attend memorial services (three in three days; others earlier). Each service took...
2 pkg. Frozen chopped spinach 1 large pkg. Cream cheese (8 oz.) 1 stick of margarine, divided in half grated rind of one lemon Pepperidge Farm dressing crumbs (herb seasoned) Blend cream cheese, ¼ stick of margarine and lemon rind. Cook spinach according to directions. Drain well. Squeeze out...
Every October, with its falling leaves and brilliant colors, I’m reminded of my father’s death: October 30 the night before Halloween. My mother had died three years earlier, leaving our father, stroke-ridden, in our house. What was curious, whenever I visited Daddy, I could feel my mother in...
This is an all-time family favorite! Just use a deep dish pyrex or other oven-safe pie plate. 1 pie dish (or aluminum pie pan) Pie Crust (from Pillsbury’s “All-ready Pie Crust”) 2 heaping tablespoons flour 1 pkg.(2 or 3 cups) Of grated, mixed cheese (colby-jack, or 4-cheese Mexican Blend...
The gemstone for September is sapphire, who knows why? (For that matter who made up the order of any of the 12 monthly gemstones, or put another way—to whose financial benefit? ) Well, I’m not even going to go there. I want to talk about the color blue and...
I know that it is September when the leaves begin to turn brown, or I find them in little fluffy mounds all along the ground near the creek. The spiders are still out in force with cobwebs that festoon our back porch and other insects are still sneaking into...
How quickly my opinions change. One moment I am sneering at Michael Cohen, the President’s long-time lawyer and fixer, a hired hand whom we see dipping his fingers in the milk of corruption, sipping from a bowl that is growing larger and larger as he sits before it...
You can use almost any kind of summer fruit for these shortcakes, whatever you can find that is fresh! Ingredients: 8 cups pineapple, slices thin 5 tablespoons sugar 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 5 tablespoons sugar 8 tablespoons...
Perhaps because of my name and its derivation (philo-sophy: the love of wisdom), I have a special relationship with wisdom. I remember when I was a teenager that my prayer — with heart-yearning anguish — was “To Understand.” “Understand what?” someone might have asked, had I opened the secret...
My childhood years were spent in a rural farming community—not a lot of folks. Amidst that small population I can remember at least three ladies named Ruby. It must have been a popular name during the times they were born. It was never one of my favorite names but...
Make a half of a cup of simple syrup. Let it cool to room temperature. Use 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar. Simmer (cook slowly) over low heat until the sugar dissolves. (Do not stir the sugar while it is dissolving, just keep an eye on it to...
Proverbs 2:6 (NIV) For the Lord gives wisdom, from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding. For the United States of America, Independence Day, July 4th, is a family celebration.There are bar-b-ques, picnics, parades, and fireworks. From small town USA to New York’s Macy’s and Washington D.C.’s spectacular fireworks...
July is one of our family birthday months. Ruby is the “birthstone” for that month. I never see a ruby without thinking of my sister, our late father, and a nephew. The stones are found (and polished) with such wonderful hues of red. Even the word “Ruby” creates a...
As the earth swings in its elliptical arc around the sun and approaches the July 4 aphelion, its farthest point from the sun (94.5 million miles), you’d think the earth would be colder than at other times. But because the North Pole tilts toward (or away from) the light...
No matter what the calendar may say, I think Summer officially begins the day I see my first firefly of the year. And that event happened on May 31st this year. Since childhood I have been fascinated by the firefly although in those growing up years, we called them...
Walking on the beach Sounds of the ocean Finding a patch of thick green moss in the woods and taking your shoes off and standing barefoot on it. A game of horseshoes A game of croquet Homemade ice cream Swimming Water skiing Eating a Georgia or South Carolina just-picked...
This is a recipe for two 8″ cakes for one tier of cake.To make a 6″ tier half the recipe, for a 10″ tier double the recipe. Ingredients: 4 eggs, room temperature 1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2...
Hooray for Summer! Time to visit family, explore beaches, hike mountain trails, join in a service project, or just relax around the swimming pool (if we are lucky!) God created this glorious beauty in the world for us to experience everyday. Genesis 1:1 states, “In the beginning God created...
There are definitely “summer savers” that restore our hearts, minds, and bodies. These are places such as the beach, the mountains, another village or town with friends or family, and new opportunities for learning and sharing. I have discovered that each time I travel or experience one of these,...
By Grace Brewer As I reflect on my time in Kenya, I am reminded of one certain thing, the people. I was able to spend two weeks of my July on a mission trip in Mombasa, Kenya. I was accompanied by a team of thirteen other students...
Sophy Burnham is the author of “A Book of Angels”, “The Art of Intuition”, “The Path of Prayer”, “For Writer’s Only”, “Falling Lovestruck”: The God Poems, “Love Melba”, and many more!! Janine: What inspired as well as motivated you (Sophy) to become a writer? What “spoke” to your heart...
What does it mean to be a person of faith? Martin Luther, one of the movers and shakers in the Protestant Reformation, thought that it meant to be a theodidacta, a “person taught by God.” I like this definition. It suggests that faith is a gift from God that...
When I automatically set the table for dinner, it never occurs to me that I have to prepare not only the “plate” upon which the food is placed but that I am actually creating the environment in which eating together makes memories. Which is to say that how and...
The last couple of weeks I have been struggling with remembering the Sovereignty of God. Thus speaks the ego of one who loves to be “in control.” One Sunday I came across much comfort in the book of Colossians. I began to realize that life is truly all...
Let me be at peace within myself. Let me accept that I am profoundly loved and never need to be afraid. Let me be aware of the source of being that is common to us all and to all living creatures. Let me be filled with the presence of...