Making resolutions for myself is easy enough: Lose 50 lbs., drive the speed limit, get 8 hours of sleep nightly, drink 70 ounces of water daily, stop (I mean really “STOP!”) at all stop signs, brush and floss my teeth three times a day, get my hair cut monthly, make good on all my ...
When people see you hurting, they want to make it better - to make you better. It’s a kind and compassionate approach to life. I appreciate that. But to my friends and loved ones, I have a message: You don’t have to try to make me better. In fact, you can’t. But I appreciate you trying. ...
A week ago or so, my 15-year-old Grand-daughter asked me about the origin of Santa Claus. Well, not sure if she knew anything or not, I quickly explained that he is a nice old man with a long white beard that lives in some undisclosed location at the North Pole. After rolling her eyes, she ...
On Christmas Eve 1970, my mother gave my sister and me a fifty-dollar bill to pick out two centerpieces for our tables at home for decorations. So off we went shopping. Near closing time, the store marked everything 50% off! So, we decided to shock my mother by doubling her purchasing ...
Big confession, which might not be such big news to regular readers of this column: I don’t do Christmas trees. I haven’t had one for more than a decade, and even before then, I didn’t feel it. I did manage to fake it, however. For years I pulled that big bad boy of a dead tree into ...
Years ago, my mother-in-law went on a Christmas cookie-baking binge, making cookie plates for those needing cheering up at Christmastime. But she waited until Christmas eve to embark on this noble task as a major snowstorm blew in town. Hurrying to finish the project, she gave me the plates ...
One of the ways I learn best from the New Testament is to read and try to understand what Jesus’ parables meant for listeners in his time and us as we read or hear them today. Sometimes he spoke to his followers, but sometimes his audience included the temple chief priests and authorities. ...
It was early Christmas Eve in 1818 when the priests of St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria, learned that the broken pipe organ would not be repaired in time for the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass. Joseph Mohr, St. Nicholas' associate priest, was the first to hear the bad news and was deeply ...
Services for the first Tama County World War II veteran whose body was returned from overseas was held for Pvt. Milo C. Upah, son of Mrs. Francess Upah of Chelsea, at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Chelsea with the Rev. Father W. Panek reading the requiem high mass. Private Upah was killed ...
My wife took me to an out-of-the-way shop some years ago to see how potters “throw clay,” as they call it. He beat a hunk of clay mercilessly, ensuring all air pockets were out. Then he took that chunk and threw it on his potter’s wheel, peddling the wheel with his feet as fast as he ...