What Treasures Will Your Kids Throw Out When You’re Gone?
For 50 years, I've held onto a baseball that was a gift from a guy I once had a crush on. Why? What makes us hold onto stuff that no one else values?
Sale on Pendant: A Novel of Mystery and Suspense
A former teacher recognizes the necklace of her missing student around the neck of another young girl. She's determined to find out what happened to her student. But the search turns deadly. PENDANT by M L Hamilton is available through all major online retailers.
Battling Discouragement in Writing
Tasked with writing our organization’s monthly newsletter, I submitted my first month’s draft for my supervisor’s approval. She took out her red pen and proceeded to slash and burn my draft—crossing out, circling, drawing arrows, writing in… I left her office fighting tears and thinking, "Why doesn’t she just write it herself?"
Keys to Self-Worth
My dad's key ring was loaded with keys. As the director of a Christian youth camp, he carried keys to ten cabins, the kitchen and dining hall, staff houses, vehicles and garages, a boat house, snack shop, bookstore, offices.... His multitude of keys hung on a retractable chain clipped onto his belt, creating a soft metallic jangle when he walked. To my young mind, those keys represented my dad's importance.
Dead Air Finals in Directors’ Choice Contest
The Stuff We Keep Shortly after our parents passed away and we went through the process of disposing of their belongings, my husband and I watched many of our friends go through the experience. We’re at That Age. It’s never easy to sift through someone else’s lifetime collection of Stuff and decide what’s worth keeping, …
The Stuff We Keep
Most of our Stuff will have little or no meaning to our children. What give meaning and value to the things we hold dear?
Why Does Everyone Want A Review?
The Stuff We Keep Shortly after our parents passed away and we went through the process of disposing of their belongings, my husband and I watched many of our friends go through the experience. We’re at That Age. It’s never easy to sift through someone else’s lifetime collection of Stuff and decide what’s worth keeping, …
Pieces of History
The Stuff We Keep Shortly after our parents passed away and we went through the process of disposing of their belongings, my husband and I watched many of our friends go through the experience. We’re at That Age. It’s never easy to sift through someone else’s lifetime collection of Stuff and decide what’s worth keeping, …
Don’t Be Sorry You Missed an Opportunity
45 years ago, I was sleeping in on my first day home from my junior year of college. I heard my dad and younger brothers in the kitchen having breakfast and getting ready for work and school. I thought about getting up to see Dad, having only seen him a few minutes when I got in the night before. But it felt good to be in my own bed with no reason to have to get up. I snuggled in and went back to sleep. Later that day...
Love, Romance and Marriage
This year, Easter happened to fall on hubby’s and my wedding anniversary. We’ve been married 80 years—40 for him and 40 for me. Math jokes aside, at times it does feel we’ve always been together. Other times, it seems like the wedding was just a last week. Someone asked if we celebrated big on our …
Spiritual Lessons from Walking the Dog
To help establish our relationship with Cinder after we adopted her, my husband and I attended an obedience class with her. The first thing we learned was to get her attention and help her focus on us rather than her surroundings. I’d hold a treat up near my chin and say, “Look at me.” As …
Fevered Reflections on Christmas
I’d planned much more for this month, but the flu waylaid me for two weeks. Consequently, all the things I’d planned to accomplish by now are not going to get done. So here are just a couple of insights that came out of my illness. With little energy for anything else, I had lots of …