Expectations are the enemy of contentment. On face value, this seems like a harmless platitude: Manage your expectations, and you’ll more readily avoid being disappointed.

Night after night, I listened
to my father's voice as it crept
up the stairs to my cold bedroom...

I’ve always known that you can’t get cleaned up for church, so to speak;

Lord, are you the one? Who summons a friend when darkness descends and hope is lost, and we need someone to talk to?

In the heat and humidity of a July afternoon,

A time will come to sit

The girl sitting at the front of the bus had gotten sick all over the sidewalk just before boarding.

When I was young and sitting in church we used to sing, Faith of Our Fathers

Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,

We neared the diving cliff and surveyed the dark blue water of the Mexican cenote lying about 20 feet below.

I live in the desert, in a valley plain surrounded by four distinct mountain ranges.

I have five sisters.

For the first time in my life, I opened a Dutch dictionary.

One day my family and I were walking with friends in a wooded park when our two-year-old daughter fell into a stream.