The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Some time ago, certain someone in my household returned home from a morning walk with an injured cat. Said cat allowed us to claim her, though we all know cats can never be owned. Two years later, she...

We’ve had our share of backyard birdfeeders over the years, some good, some bad. Invariably, the styles, shapes, capacity, and mount were based on what we thought was best to attract birds. The...

It is a rare thing to declare something perfected, an apex moment when nothing more could be improved upon. Such moments are more readily acknowledged in the world of art, individual performances or...

Part of getting older (and hopefully wiser) is the ability to recognize when to turn away from chaos in the moment in order to refocus on that which is life-sustaining. It is more than taking a 10...

Out of the flow of disheartening news these days come moments of insight, wonder, and amazement. Such moments don’t usually occur with great fanfare. They simply find us when it is time and impress...

The myth of the super parent or super family is alive and well these days. How do you handle the stress of change? Don’t believe everything you hear or see, particularly online. The perfect happy...

“Return to Sender” was emblazoned across the front of a personal letter that found its way back to my mailbox. I verified the information and came to the conclusion that everything on my end was...

It’s a timely question these days, made even more critical by the fact that every person’s setting is unique. COVID-19 is not anything to pass off or take lightly, something confirmed by the...

The digital divide that so many have found challenging has become less divide and more of a mere rift in the valley floor of our lives. As we move further into the unknown of the pandemic, how we do...

Extraordinary is the word of the week when describing a celestial visitor to our corner of the galaxy. It references Comet NEOWISE, a three-mile wide once-in-6,500 year visitor that is a delight to th...

It has been a year of great interest thus far, from rancorous politicking and damaging storms to viral health concerns, real and imagined. Such an impactful combination has encouraged a common...

Everyone would like a clearer picture of what is happening these days in the social, medical and cultural arenas of our lives. We all have our lists of things that we prefer not to see, or just as...

Set aside grandstanding, bickering, politicizing and anger. Send them packing in short order along with impatience, intolerance, ungratefulness and wont. Unguarded emotions and irritable...

Hard as it is to hear, the business of the church is sometimes no business of God. Given enough time, every church and every congregation will experience the corporate side of church that sometimes...

Sometimes the Jesus we expect is nothing like the one that shows up. It’s not a matter of blame as much as it is acknowledgement that what we think we know is not always congruent with contemporary...

We human beings are not very good at change. It is far easier to stand pat with what we know than it is to adapt to or embrace the realities of who we are and what we face. For example, one would...

Creating personal space and time away from everyday life has always been an important self-care concept, one that is also recognized scripturally. Nevertheless, the world-wide pandemic is now fully pr...

One of the early tasks assigned to woodshop class decades ago was a weekly hour devoted to mechanical drawing using draftsmen’s tools. It was purportedly the bane of many a student, especially when...

Given the times that we are experiencing, it would be interesting to know how history will treat our exploits in years to come. Will we be seen as rising to the occasion with the best qualities of...

I found myself in the most unusual place today, the ninth Sunday since March 14 that we have not gathered face-to-face at the church building. By noon, I was thoroughly at a loss as to what to share i...

There is no trophy like a dog trophy. Never a mere participation award, dog trophies are earned by finding something rank and dragging it back home or bringing other small critters dead or alive to...

It’s amazing how a splash of color can brighten one’s attitude. We experimented last year with plantings of pansies that, contrary to expectation, were able to thrive throughout most of the summer...

A spring snow this past week was especially welcome. For a few short hours it cloaked and covered the trees and landscape with artistic zeal, softening the edges of everything it encountered and quiet...

The liturgical year for Christians is filled with events that orient, providing opportunities for worship, study, dynamic challenges and personal growth. The liturgical cycle guides us in our...

Life was simple growing up in a small rural community. The highlights of carefree youth included explorations of most of the local businesses and their owners, knowing every person in town through a p...