just enough light

Yesterday, President Biden publicly commemorated the 500,000 people who have died of COVID-19 in this country alone. It’s a staggering number, and yet as the stories keep coming and the number goes up, I get numb to the reality of it. Because I am not a nurse or some other front-line worker, because I don’t […]

Yesterday, sitting in my car behind another car at an intersection stop sign, I noted a familiar pattern. The driver in front of me was making a right turn onto a street that had two lanes going each direction. The traffic was patchy with cars crossing every few seconds. At the first break in the […]

I spent most of Monday and Tuesday last week melting snow. We were among the few who did not lose power during the winter storm, but we lost water for a few days. We were surrounded by snow, having just come through the biggest snowfall in Abilene history on Sunday, so I decided to melt […]

Today is the first Sunday of Lent, that 6-week period in the church calendar that precedes Easter. I was a latecomer to Lent. Growing up in a Baptist minister’s home, I rarely heard of Lent. It was not until I was a seminary student that I was introduce to Lent as an experience that might […]

Joe Biden is taking heat after his comment in the last presidential debate about the need to “transition away from fossil fuels.” Trump seized on the moment, saying that will be very interesting for voters in Texas and Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, all big oil producers. Trump has gone on to hammer away at the statement […]

-a sermon preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baird, TX. 9-20-20 “It’s just not fair!” How many times have you heard children shout that at the end of a game that didn’t turn out the way they wanted. I heard that at the end of every argument that ended with one of my children being grounded. […]

For three minutes last Saturday, people across China stopped what they were doing. In urban centers, all traffic lights went to red, everything came to halt. People bowed their heads, stood in silence, and paid respect to the thousands of friends, family, patients and medical workers who had died in the pandemic. How wise. A […]

As with any project sanctioned by a governmental body of any size, the project took longer than the size of the project would indicate. Digger had warned the board, “This will be more complicated than you think,” and he was right. No one anticipated the number of regulations involved and permits required to expand a […]

The Board, as one, lurched forward, stunned. The townspeople gasped, riveted, but confused. David paused, then continued quietly, “This is my proposal. Plans may proceed as proposed; a road may be built over my plots, with these conditions. When the road is laid out, I want a speed bump built into the road over the […]

Those in attendance grew restless as the Board went through all their normal gyrations of approving notes from the previous meeting, making announcements, and inquiring about old business that needed a revisit. When Board member, Randy Turner, raised a question about a detail pertaining to the payment date for the town’s liability insurance policy, an […]