Holidays & Remembrance
Articles mainly about a holiday or national day: Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, New Year, July 4th, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Mother's or Father's Day.
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Merry Christmas
One Christmas Season, Dad felt at the apex of frustration with his stage four cancer diagnosis. Worn out and weary to the bone, he tried to navigate both the physical and emotional work of managing his pain.
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Advent
This season as we celebrate Advent, I consider what it means to prepare. What are we preparing? We prepare food, a place for guests to stay, we prepare presents, decorations, traveling accommodations, and schedules.
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Giving Away Thankfulness
Why should Thanksgiving be limited to one calendar day a year? Giving thanks can be so much more than watching football all day, eating piles of delicious food that later make us miserable, Christmas shopping, a four-day weekend.…
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Trick or Treat
5 BILLION spent on Halloween each year; the second biggest money making celebration of the year. Who said capitalism is dead? 2000 years ago the Celts believed they could talk with the visiting dead.
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Happy Father’s Day
Happy Father’s Day is so much more than a just a happy… Father’s… day… There are at last three valuable celebrations during this day to honor Fatherhood.
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The Outcome of Unity
At the NBC Camps Christmas party, we took red and white pipe cleaners and wound them together to make a candy cane.
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Memorial Day
I am feeling afraid to remember. What if I struggle to remember? What if I don’t want to think of all the white crosses and the families with an empty place at the table?
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Easter Story
I am in love with Christianity, but I am also overwhelmed by all the trauma and bloody history this word represents.
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Good Friday
One of the gifts God has given me is a reframing of what I define as good. It’s been a long life lesson. I believe the disciples learned this lesson.
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Multiplication
March 18th was the birthday of my beloved father. I have been crying on and off all week. March is our family’s birthday month, and Dad is deeply missed during this time.
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Lenten Season
Today marks the beginning of Lent. It’s a time that triggers strong images and memories of Dad. I can picture him walking around New York City with an ashen cross on his forehead.
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Sincere Devotion
It is Valentine’s Day, a day most people focus on romantic love. However, the namesake for this day was deeply devoted to so much more than romantic love.
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Honoring MLK
Shann was an A student but not a real reader when I met him and now he teaches in the PhD department of Gonzaga’s Leadership program reading 250+ paged dissertations.
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Intentions
Dad loved the promise of the new year. He loved journals, plans, and renewal. Yesterday, on New Year’s Day, a group of us gathered around the table to discuss how to enter 2023 with intention.
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What time is it?
My daughter traveled to Melbourne for her college roommate’s wedding. She left the afternoon of Christmas Eve because flights were astronomical any other time.
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Repeat the Sounding Joy
We love Christmas music at the Ferch house. One of my new favorites is Aretha Franklin’s “Joy to the World.” I just heard it for the first time this year.
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Christmas Intention
The world outside my window is covered in snow, the trees flocked with hoarfrost. A palpable stillness descends with the snow. I have a quiet, almost solemn but still joyful feeling as I look out in wonder.
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Remembering Veterans Day
I read a short story about a firsthand account of the suffering in Iraq aloud to Mom and Dad. Afterward, they read the rest of the book.
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Labor Day
My Dad loved hard work. He had a paper route at the age of nine. I visited Dad’s hometown this summer to watch one of our amazing directors.
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Surprised by Joy
I had been dreading Father’s Day. I woke up on Father’s Day, assuming it would be a bone-crushing day of sorrow, but it wasn’t. I left deep gratitude for my Dad and felt very close to him.
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Memorial Day
In the book of John, we have this definition of love, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lays his life down for his friends.” In this brief definition, we have the image of love involving…
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True testimony
I celebrated Easter at my Mom and Dad’s church. It was my Mom’s first Easter without Dad.
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He’s Alive
One of the first concerts I attended was in Birmingham, Alabama. It was Don Francisco live. My mom and Dad took me to the show. We loved his music, and my all-time favorite song was He’s Alive.
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April Fools
When I was in high school, my Dad began to play April Fool’s jokes which were never quite funny to anyone but him.
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Garden
As I plan for Dad’s Celebration of Life, the person helping me organize the décor told me that because the stage is large, she imagined we could make it like a garden and asked if my Dad liked…
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Messenger
Today is my Dad’s birthday. Do I write that it would have been his 80th or that it is his 80th birthday? I will say it is Dad’s 80th birthday.
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Consider the Birds of the Air
Dad loved New Year’s Eve. He loved to clean out closets; he loved to organize and plan; he loved fresh starts. New Year’s Eve was a big event in my home.
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Joyful and Triumphant
Merry Christmas to all of you at Words of Hope. I want to share this Christmas story. Tom is my father-in-law, and he and my Dad were close friends.
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The Human Soul
The day after Thanksgiving was difficult. I found myself feeling quite sad about Dad.
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Thanksgiving
Dad was masterful at creating meaningful moments. At Thanksgiving, the TV would be off, there would be intentional time for grateful reflection, and there would be great food and laughter.
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Veterans Day
My dad loved veterans and felt deeply grateful for his friends and family who served. One man that he came to know and love fought in the Vietnam war. They were around the same age.
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Land That I Love
“This land is your land, this land is my land. From California to New York Island, from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf stream waters.
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Best We Not Forget
Wise people do not forget those who have gone before and made our lives richer, better, happier, and safer.
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Thanksgiving Week
In 1863, because of the Army victory at Gettysburg during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln declared a national Thanksgiving holiday for every succeeding November.
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Labor Day Celebration
I discovered far too late in life what Labor Day Celebration should be. I thought it was valuing hard work.
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Month of February
FEBRUARY is the second month of the year in the Gregorian calendar and its predecessor, the Julian calendar.
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Winter Break
Hello Miracles! Soon we celebrate the greatest miracle of all, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Thanksgiving with the Crowell Family
“I will offer to YOU the sacrifice of thanksgiving & will call on the name of the Lord.” Psalm 116:17 Our Special Day dedicated to being extra thankful typically begins in the early morning hours with Susie by…
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Mother’s Day – Honor Women
No other person deserves honor, appreciation and high esteem as does a mother . She continually gives, cares, sacrifices with little thought of anything in return. Why? Because she loves her children and many others!
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Filled with Hope
A recent phone conversation with my sister began like this: “I love you, sis!” “I love you, too.” “Can I ask you a question on this Good Friday?” “I knew you were going to ask me a question.”…
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Thank You African Americans
Fifty-four years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., paid the ultimate sacrifice for all humanity. Yesterday we celebrated his life.
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Noel
NOEL is a word born in England and France over 500 years ago, meaning “see what God has done!” It is a joyful expression of the excitement of Christ being born on this earth .
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9-11 and the EAR to HEAR
9-11-18 The Day written upon our hearts that marks the greatest tragedy known to our Nation! So many have forgotten or have never known because they were young!
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Precious Presents
31 days of precious presents in December Savor is a great word. To me, savor means to enjoy to the maximum. To savor each day in December as Christmas is pure delight for me.
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Absolutely – Absolutamente!
Key Statement: Words you say, are far more important than the words you think. You create your world by the words of your mouth.
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Decide to Make Wise Decisions
“Decide” is one of those highly interesting words in the English language. “De” is an important prefix. It connotes taking away or removing. “Cide” has many partners. Outside, inside, downside, upside, homicide, suicide, genocide.
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Honor Is a Golden Virtue
As we honor we in turn will be honored The word honor and the idea of honoring others has been on my mind this Christmas season’s 31 days of celebration.
