Still seeking a world of peace & justice, this minister, mate, and mom - an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), finds great happiness and God's presence in many places: from sandy beaches to the top of a Teton, soup kitchens to used bookstores. Tamalyn embraces the philosophy that "Life is Good," but we have much work to do.
I walked out to my garage, eagerly trailed by my ever curious dogs. What’s happening? Are we going to miss something important? As I opened my car to put my belongings inside, the dogs looked at me expectantly. Apparently, to a dog, an open car door can mean only one thing. The dogs looked at […]
“What do you say?” It’s a question every child hears frequently while learning to navigate the social niceties. Parents always hope their children will quickly learn to respond with a “please” or a “thank you.”
I’ve reached the limit to my tolerance. I’ve heard the platitude one too many times. “Everything happens for a reason,” a friend smiled sweetly, just a few days go, yet her words seemed to freeze the air between us.
This article is written for all those who are never first choice. Or rarely first choice. We get the jobs because someone else backed out. We get the house because someone else couldn’t afford it. We are the experts in unrequited love and rebound romances. We grow up in hand-me-down clothes and were the last ones […]
Benjamin Franklin has been quoted as saying that one can measure a culture’s morals by how they treat the dead. Recent weeks have made many people wonder about our culture, our collective conscience, our ability to show compassion.
It’s 1971 and Everything’s Groovy! We wear our hair natural ““ whether long and stringy or in afros. However God made it is how we “style” it. Our pants are beginning to slide lower on our hips, the “bells” at the ankles getting larger and larger. Our parents detest our hotpants and our mini skirts. We’ve […]
I am a hippy, dippy, long skirt and Birkenstock wearing, soap making, farmer’s market shopping, non-profit working, dyed in the wool, bleeding heart liberal. I also love to shop. And I love to eat. And I enjoy my cushy life. But, do I enjoy my cushy life to the detriment of others?
Ah, Halloween, that holy day of candy and costumes, gluttony and tricks. Most of us have lost sight of the meaning behind the holiday, forgetting to honor the dead; instead using the day for fun and frivolity (yes, we do so at our house) and as a kick-off for the “holiday season.” Halloween has become […]
It’s become oh-so-chic to make Thankful Lists. Oprah had people doing it a few years back. Various authors have people do it, especially around Thanksgiving. Psychologists have their patients keep their gratitude journals when they’re facing times of depression or discontent with their lives.
I’ve been a sun worshipping beach baby for as long as I can remember. I’ve slathered on baby oil and tanning lotion on beaches up and down the West Coast, from Seattle to Newport Beach, and at lakesides from tiny, little Fern Ridge in Oregon to the Great Lakes. And I’ve been sunburned. Oh, how […]
I recently had lunch in a room full of women who sport a great deal more grey hair and wrinkles than I. When counting birthdays, most of them have long since passed the umpteenth celebration of their 39th birthdays and are proud to declare their actual age. Seventy-nine, 83, 98 – however many birthdays have passed […]
War is ugly. Most of us learn that lesson fairly early in life as wars are played out on our television screens. I grew up with the daily Vietnam death counts. My children’s reality was a big sign on a neighborhood street proclaiming the number of Iraqi deaths that week. War is ugly. There is no […]
I love weddings. All the excitement, hope, love, beauty, romance. The expectations and plans for the future. Two people coming together, building something strong, creating a bond, which will carry them through the years and the unforeseen things those years may bring to them.
My husband and I have been married for a few decades now. We’ve been working hard on achieving the happily ever after that’s been promised in fairy tales, rom-coms, and romance novels. Alas, my state is now the seventh state in the union to pass marriage equality.
My first contact with Planned Parenthood was back in the late-’70s. Those were the days in which we clasped our well worn copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves in one hand and our burgeoning feminism in the other.