First Presbyterian Church of Valparaiso

I’ve been thinking about tradition. Our family is big on that. Perhaps like you, we do certain things to mark certain events. Singing “Happy Birthday” to anyone is almost always followed by my stirring rendition of the birthday song from a TV show of my childhood…T Bar V Ranch Time starring cowboy Randy Atcher and his rodeo clown buddy, Cactus. (A tradition our kids have pretty much grown to despise over the years!) Another family tradition that Harry and I started was watchi

Sharon and I are visiting our son and his wife in Eureka, CA (Northern California near the Avenue of the Giants redwood forest) and it has been a long time since we last were able to visit and be with them. What a great feeling to be with family ‘live & in-person’! That same feeling was felt on Easter Sunday at the 7:00 a.m. Sunrise Service in the brisk air with full sunshine in our Pavilion. It was the first time in a long time we were able to be with some of our church fami

I have to admit, in my much younger days, I wasn’t much into riding rollercoasters. Yes, at that point of my life, the thought of riding rollercoasters kind of scared me. But why did I fear them? Perhaps I was overwhelmed with the complexity of the operation – the angles, the slopes, or the speed of the cars. Or maybe I just didn’t trust that they were safe to ride. Yes, I had doubts and, as a result, I did not ride a real rollercoaster until I was 50 years old with my nephew