History, Real Life, and Faith
Do music and math talent go together? I first heard of the connection when I was twelve and taking piano lessons. Mrs. Stone presented a new piece of music, I put my hands to the keys and started playing. “Wait,” she said. “You didn’t want to study and count it out?” I tilted my head in confusion. “Count out what?”…
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I first glimpsed Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books as a second grader. Our new school building opened that year and the library was filled with new books, new tables, new chairs and new students. I sat facing the W section of fiction and there at eye level waited a row of books will matching covers. Intrigued, I yearned for permission to…
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How writers choose names for their characters.
I get to see the band! I’m attending the UCLA– Cal football game tomorrow and I’m excited about the prospects–because I get to see the band again, live. I haven’t attended a football game in probably 15 years–back in the day when we were trying to help our oldest son figure out what college he wanted to attend. We all…
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Often, I find myself weeping over the sepia photos while researching. It happened again this week. While researching World War I and the Alaskan Gold Rush, my heart surged and there I was weeping over the sepia photos one more time. I’ve spent years in the marveling at actual photos of real events. Your imagination, of course, can and should conjure…
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Kathleen Chambers was the only little girl in a World War I camp in Egypt. Her father, Oswald Chambers served a chaplain at the Zeitoun YMCA camp in Cairo. He brought along with him his wife Biddy and their toddler daughter, Kathleen. As best I can tell, a child in a World War I YMCA camp was an unusual presence. Kathleen, of course, was a…
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