• Tales from the Wedding Altar

    By Rev. James E. (Jimmy Mac) McNamara An easy read, “Tales form the Wedding Altar” takes the reader through various true stories from weddings Rev. Jimmy Mac has performed in Lass Vegas over the last four years. Some of the stories are heartwarming and some embarrassing, but the majority leave the reader chuckling. The stories are short, which makes the book easy to read in spurts. I kept it in my lunch box and read it during my breaks at work. It was a fun read.    

  • Creating a layered herb pot

    I am truly a reduce, reuse, recycle person. When something is heading for the garbage, I often see ways to repurpose it. Like the 5-inch-tall cardboard tubes that hold labels we use at work. I was watching the 6-inch diameter tubes adding up in the recycle box and wham, I was struck with the idea of using them to create a layered herb pot.   For my idea, I needed four of the tubes, a pot ?with a minimum of 14 inches in diameter, potting mix and herbs. I filled the pot with the potting mix up to about 2…

  • Enchantment in the hills

    As I enter my columns into the computer I realize how much my writing has changed over the years. I really need to edit the columns I wrote in the early days. Anyway, while writing during a lull at one of my recent book signings, I was struck with the idea of blogging about being still. We have a tendency to keep moving along with our busy lives, and rarely slowing down to breathe, to listen and to rejuvenate. No wonder we have so many physical and emotional health issues! I ran across the following column, which I wrote in…

  • Life is fragile

    Life is truly amazing! We never know, from one minute to the next, what life holds. Every day is a blessing.   I am about half way through a book titled “Life with Grace” about a child’s early years after a premature birth at only 24 weeks. The book, written by Jennifer Schwertfeger, Grace’s mother, describes what the family went through, mostly from the eyes of Jennifer. She lays out the fears, the medical issues and the emotional trauma of nearly losing Grace many times. She talks about how those things affected her, the weight loss, the sleepless nights, etc.,…

  • Choice, the architect of our lives

    Uploading the columns I have written over the years into the computer is an interesting adventure, both down memory lane and into my past thought processes. It’s fascinating when I find ones that speak to me now. The following column was written in 2004. I firmly believe the concepts in this column. Though some of my priorities and choices change with the ebb and flow of life, like the choice to go to Nigeria last fall, I am grateful I live in a country where choice truly is the architect of our lives.   Choice, the architect of our lives…

  • Daring to Dream

    I have been a journalist for many years, beginning my published career around 1990. Though I haven’t written articles for publication the last year-and-one-half, journalism still runs in my blood and my thoughts. In the early 1990s, I wrote columns for the Winsted Journal, which I enjoyed tremendously. That was before blogging became a part of our culture. The following column is one I wrote in February of 1995 during a tough time in my life. There were struggles in my marriage, and I was about to sell my hobby farm. It is a column of gratitude and acknowledgement of…

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