COMMENTARY: The Missing Baby Jesus

In a lovely essay*, Jean Gietzen wrote about a family experience in 1943. It was just before Christmas in North Dakota and her family had just bought a nativity set with small figurines. But Jean’s mother was deeply disturbed to discover the set included an extra Baby Jesus. “Go back to the store,” she instructed, “and tell the manager to put …

Be Your Child’s Role Model

“Your children will become what you are; so be what you want them to be.” – David Bly. Role modeling is a 27/7 job. Often its what you do when you don’t think your children are watching that has the most impact.  

The first duty of LOVE is to LISTEN

The first duty of LOVE is to LISTEN. -Paul Tillich. Listening doesn’t mean obeying, it means making a true effort to hear and understand what the other person is saying and feeling. Think how much better relationships would be if parents really listened to their children; if children – minors and adults – really listened to their parents and if …

WORTH WATCHING: The tender and beautiful naivete of young love

“A bell is no bell ’til you ring it, A song is no song ’til you sing it, And love in your heart Wasn’t put there to stay Love isn’t love ‘Til you give it away.” — “I am 16 going on 17” from The Sound of Music,  one of the great songs about young love, by Rodgers and Hammerstein

OBSERVATION: The Perfect Boyfriend

The perfect boyfriend. Someone whose heart beats faster when he sees you, thinks of you as beautiful instead of hot, calls you back when you hang up on him, will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat or will stay awake just to watch you sleep. Wait for a young man who will kiss away your tears, and …

OBSERVATION: What Love Is and Is Not

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not