My granddaughter and I are pretty good buddies. In church on Sunday, she wanted me to hold her while we were standing and singing songs. It made me realize that this was coming to an end. Not next Sunday, but it’s coming to an end. She is going to reach the height and weight where […]
For the past several years, I’ve worked with church-affiliated organizations. I’m now working with a non-profit that is not religiously or church affiliated. It is a great non-profit that has multi-faceted programming and empowerment activities for girls, but simply not a religious-based organization. In my new world, we have gone to lunch a couple times […]
I made a goal of riding 60 miles on my bike for my 60th birthday. So I picked out the morning where it was forecasted to have light winds and set off around the bike trail. I wasn’t feeling the best that morning, hadn’t ridden for over a week, and was starting to sort out […]
I was sitting in a coffee shop and the person next to me began speaking to me. He was very talkative, very intelligent, and very mentally ill. I would say we had a conversation, but that would mean I would have had the ability to say words in response. He covered a wide range of […]
I came upon an advertisement that promoted a waterfall excursion in northeast Minnesota. Basically from Duluth to the Canadian border or if you know the shape of the state, we went up to the top, right tip. A highway borders Lake Superior and along the way there are many places to see waterfalls. We asked […]
We played co-ed volleyball with three other couples and all our children are boys. So naturally our team was named Boys-R-Us. While our families have transitioned and we don’t all live in the same community, we’ve maintained our friendship. It started very innocently. A friend put a metal wishing well on a rummage sale. As […]
We were fortunate to be able to travel to Alaska. When we arrived, our friend took us to an overlook area where many of the mountain peaks were visible. It was a beautiful, clear day and the views were gorgeous. I took many photos and when I looked at the images, I said to my […]
Our team just returned from a trip to Haiti. In addition to being a fun group, we actually got some work accomplished. The main purpose was to begin the building of a school. We dedicated the Rob Marchand Education Center, in honor of my good friend who passed away a couple years ago. It is […]
It is said that the Eskimos have 40-50 names for different kinds of snow. So why do we have one name for friend? If someone asks if you know a particular person, our answer is something like, “Oh, ya, he’s a friend of mine.” But aren’t they actually – Acquaintance. Someone you’ve met along the […]
At the prayer service for my buddy Rob, I wasn’t able to bring myself to get up and speak. It was something I should have done, but this is what I meant to say. Rob was a Yankees fan and yet he went to at least a dozen Twins games with me. Those were trips […]