The message came early in the morning.
A friend of mine wanted to inform me of something before I saw it on social media.
Another young person took their own life.
There was no name given; I did not need to know the name in order to pray.

My heart hurt.
I could not imagine the pain of this young person’s mother.
I could not imagine the pain of any siblings who would be grappling with the Why of it all.
I was so sad; I grieved for a young person I did not know.

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My husband cannot see in the dark.
I do not mean he is unable to drive at night.
I simply mean that he cannot walk around a dark room without bumping into things.
He teases me that I must have cat eyes, since I can see in the dark quite easily.

I guess it must have been all those carrots my mother made me eat when I was a girl.
Carrots are good for your eyes, she used to say to me.
I have no idea if that was true.
Perhaps it was, since walking in the dark is not a problem for me.

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I love one particular shop in my favorite place of Amish buggies.
Some may call it a thrift shop but it is so much more.
There are clothes, housewares, toys, and books.
The shop supports a Mennonite mission.

There are Mennonite women who work there.
I see Amish women as well, as evidenced by the buggies parked in the back.
An elderly Amish man is always there when I bring donations.
His long beard, black pants, and suspenders make that quite obvious.

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We went to our son and daughter-in-love’s church.
It was their first Sunday on the worship team.
Our son was drumming.
Our daughter-in-love was singing.

We drove to the church and went to the second service.
We planned to go out to lunch afterwards.
The church is quite large.
We found our seats.

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We have a pest in our area.
It is a nuisance to homeowners.
It can be found on sidewalks and buildings.
It can be found on patios and trees.

The pest is now a threat to our state’s grape, fruit tree, and logging industries.
The Department of Agriculture has placed a quarantine on certain areas.
The greatest threat comes from transporting things that contain the egg masses.
Those egg masses are found on smooth bark, stone, and other vertical surfaces.

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It was the day of the annual 5K to support our local crisis pregnancy center.
Each participant can choose whether they want to walk or run.
My oldest daughter chose to run.
My daughter and her husband also chose to run and this year their little daughter joined them.

I watched my son-in-love push his precious daughter in their running stroller.
He was prepared.
If she needed a bottle, he had one tucked in the side of the stroller.
I will just run and feed her, he said demonstrating how he might do that.

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The flash flood alerts kept coming to my phone.
I always appreciate the alerts.
They are helpful for tracking storms.
They are helpful as rainfall or snowfall amounts are posted.

Sometimes, a flash flood alert comes and it amounts to nothing.
We tend to lose power here in the country, so when a big storm is coming, I fill the bathtub.
I fill the bathtub because when we lose electricity, we cannot run our water.
Having water in the bathtub comes in handy for necessities.

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I have one pocketbook that I use every day.
I am quite used to it.
It has a place for everything.
It has a long strap that can be used across my body.

A women’s pocketbook is a mysterious thing.
It is something she has to buy for herself.
A women’s pocketbook goes with her wherever she goes.
It becomes her friend after a while.

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All three of my daughters were here for dinner.
My granddaughter was here as well.
My husband, being the only man, was terribly outnumbered.
It was going to be a girl’s night.

I decided to make London Broil since it is a favorite of my girls.
I marinated it that morning.
I could smell the wonderful spices every time I opened the refrigerator.
I knew that they would be pleasantly surprised.

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When my children were growing up, family dinners happened every night.
That was our time to gather.
That was our time to share stories of our day.
That was our time to connect.

With five children, two boys and three girls, we rarely had leftovers.
What was made for dinner was eaten.
I always seemed to make enough.
Very rarely food was wrapped up and put in the refrigerator.

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