Can You Imagine? Can I even imagine? What would it be like to wake up every morning without a single worry in the world? “Well, of course!” You might say. “If my circumstances were different, I wouldn’t worry. I worry about my kids, my loved ones, my parents, and our health because I love them. And now we face the holidays which can be joyful but can also be stressful and sometimes cause us to worry. I understand.  We will always have circumstances and reasons to worry! I grew up in a family where worrying is how you showed your love. If you didn’t worry, it meant you didn’t care.…

    “Do you like my new security front screen?” I asked the mailman who often had to step onto our front porch to deliver a package that was too big to put in the mailbox. “Oh, I love it,” he beamed. “Thanks for replacing the old screen. Before, I always worried that the lion would rip right through the old screen and attack me.” “The lion?” I paused wondering what he was talking about. “Yeah, you know, your dog.” Another bewildered pause. “What? Uh, do you mean our tiny 17-pound chihuahua?” “Of course!” Now he was smiling, secure and safe behind our new screen. Wait a minute, I thought as he…

Sometimes I think that I live a sheltered life. But I love to get out and meet new people and encourage them. How can I if I don’t get out to meet them? After all, my book, That One Person was written to encourage others. It finally occurred to me that the opportunity to be that one person, even for just a moment, was all around me. I just wasn’t looking! This change of attitude started when a repairman came to fix our broken dishwasher. He was a friendly young Hispanic. I asked, “Where are you from originally?” “Well, my family came from Mexico twenty years ago and now I…

I have been afraid many times in my life. Have you? What is courage? I am amazed when I hear or read about courageous people but would never think of myself as one of them.  For example, after college when I became a junior high teacher in Burbank, the first week as I faced a classroom of rowdy kids who knew I was new, I was terrified. Could I do this after all that training? You would hardly call it courageous! But, because I was determined to succeed, I pretended to be confident. And prayed a lot! Over time, I became a good teacher and loved it. Even loved the…