William Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.  Isn’t that the truth?  But in the play Romeo and Juliet, I’m told that Shakespeare was referring to Juliet’s argument that it doesn’t matter that Romeo’s surname is ‘Montague’ from her family’s rival’s ‘house of Montague’.    It made me think about my name…

I would never have dreamt in a thousand years that I would be using this space this month for the following:       Jesse Diauto – Born January 21, 1977 – Died unexpectedly May 22, 2017

I always loved going home for the breaks during my college years. It was HOME! With all its familiarity, I could have navigated through our old New England colonial blindfolded. Nothing ever changed. Everything was right where it supposed to be. The butter and condiments were in the same cupboard. The towels right where they…

It is common knowledge that every major religion has a symbol.  I’m sure that we all would recognize each one.  My favorite television quiz program, Jeopardy has had a category more than once covering ‘world religions and their symbols’.  I came across an article recently that put together these religions with their visual symbols in…

“Not everyone can say (it), but I count myself lucky to have a birth mother who loved me enough to know she wasn’t ready to be a mom. I’m lucky that I have wonderful parents who chose me. I often say adoption is a full-circle blessing and I truly believe it. Adopted children were not…

This is the ‘Love Month’!   :)   Not only this month, but sometimes I am just flooded with thoughts of all the people I love – too many to mention here.   But, included in those is family, of course.  I have just spent considerable time with my grandbabies, and oh, how we love each other!   And…

It was such a cold, blustery Sunday evening several years ago when my boys and I were on our way to church across town for the service.  It was that ‘bitter cold’ that a January offers us in New England.  It wasn’t just freezing, it was literally below freezing!  And besides that we had so…

I just love the Holiday Season.  From a child, it started with Thanksgiving.  We would draw the cornucopias, fat, colorful turkeys and boy and girl pilgrims at school.  On Thanksgiving Day, the older ones would watch football games most of the day.  And then ultimately, we would stuff ourselves silly on holiday.  The next thing…

O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!   –  Psalm 30.12b

I read this recently from a Ravi Zacharias writing – that for the Greeks, it was knowledge.  For the Romans, it was glory.  But for the Hebrews, it was light.  He used several verses including, “The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light.”  (Matthew 4:16), “There was the true light which coming…