Serve by Design

More than thirty-three years ago, we moved our family to central Illinois and bought our second home. This modest ranch-style house is situated on a half-acre corner lot and has five mature trees, numerous shrubs and flowering bushes that serve as habitat attracting a variety of birds and small animals. One of the most prized of our collection is the stately Rhododendron that always has a bird nest or two each season. If I get too close to the bush during spring cleanup, I hear squawking that warns me that anxious mother birds are protecting baby hatchlings! May Celebration Time! Every May this native Rhododendron puts on a magnificent display of flowering beauty. The variety of our Rhododendron has purple flowers that attract early pollinators to the trumpet-shaped flowers with their brilliant petals and multiple stamens in perfect symmetry.. There are times when I’d like to trim and prune this large plant back. But then, I think about how often we have used the Rhododendron as a back...

Sometimes when I am reading or watching television, one phrase will stick in my mind. This is what happened Christmas Day as I watched the launching of the James Webb Space Telescope and then followed the event by reading around it in the news. The Webb Space Telescope was named after the second administrator of NASA, James Webb, who was appointed to his position by President John F. Kennedy. Webb guided the agency during the Apollo era. James Webb Space Telescope Image credit: iStock.com The launch of the J.W. Telescope is sure to eclipse the innovation and importance of its enduring predecessor, Hubble, back in April of 1990. This innovative and costly ten-billion-dollar space observatory has a unique purpose as it orbits our sun. The goal of its mission is to study infrared light in deep space. It is expected to be able to “look” 13.7 billion years back in time! Scientists hope that this telescope will give insights into the origins and beginnings of the universe. This Christmas sea...

We have had a beautiful ornamental shrub in the front of our house that has played a prominent role in every graduation we have celebrated over the past 28 years. The delicate, purple-colored petals of this rhododendron have been the backdrop to many photos during the latter weeks of May. Annually, it has bloomed at the perfect time for us to celebrate elementary, secondary, and college graduations! Although they won't be around to get that special picture, we do have two special grandsons - Brady and Ben - who will be celebrating their 8th grade graduations in the next few days and their passage into high school this fall. Oh, how those years have passed so quickly! And there are more celebrations coming! I said to our grand daughter, Chloe, just the other day, "Sweet Girl, someday, you will be standing before the 'ole rhodie' mugging for the camera in all your youthful beauty as we mark for all-time the accomplishments represented by your graduation." While I ...

It was almost bedtime when our son, Marc, casually appeared at our doorway that Wednesday evening, August 8, 2018 at nine o'clock. We were on summer vacation and visiting with his family in Georgetown, Texas. He said, "Dad, I want you and mom to come outside for a minute." I was more than a little curious. Soon it became apparent that Monique and I were joining others on planet earth who were stargazing and viewing the heavens at a  truly timely occasion when a unique phenomenon was occurring in the Milky Way. On this special night, we were able to clearly view four of the six planets that were visible to the naked eye for those observing in the southern states. It was, in many ways, a miracle of the perfect convergence of planetary alignment and clear night skies that synced with our earnest attention and the use of an app on Marc's smart phone that served as our "telescope." Venus was so clear it was almost blinding in its radiance. Mars was sharp...