This week I received a warm note from Pastor Schneider, former pastor here at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and School. He was so affirming to me by his sadness at the announcement of my retirement, just as so many of you have been by your kind words…I do not know how to thank you all! […]
The year before my dad died, out of the blue, he would often say to us, “Have you ever heard this one? ‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘To talk of many things: Of shoes – and ships – and sealing-wax – Of cabbages — and kings —’” As a family, we really did not know […]
For as long as I can remember, my dad would say periodically, “Do you know what I was thinking about this morning?” I knew exactly where he was when he was “thinking.” He was in bed, laying there, pondering the thoughts of life before he would get up and tend to the needs of the […]
My story begins at the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans. I was just starting high school at the time and was trying to both decide what I wanted to do with my life and where I wanted to go to college. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to major in but I […]
When in a group of people, there are two questions that I love to pose to anyone willing to venture into a discussion. One of the questions is, “What book are you reading right now?” This question can lead to a lively discussion about topical information, fiction or non-fiction. However, the other question I love […]
I ran into a former pastor of St. Paul’s, George Hanusa, at Wartburg’s Homecoming last weekend. We talked right away of the lasting gift he gave me the first year I was principal here. He and his wife, Janet, had come into the school after visiting the church. He told me the story of Mrs. […]
The father, of one of my dearest friends Elaine Hanson, died in early June. He was a quiet, unassuming man. He loved his family and his God. When I was with my Elaine this summer, she told me of a letter she had found some time ago. The letter had been written by her father […]
My Grandma Myhrwold used to say, “There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us, it behooves us all not to talk about the rest of us.” That repeated phrase made a lasting impression on me that continues to guide my way. To me it […]
“You can tell more about someone, not by what others say about them, but by what they say about others.” This is one so worth repeating. As Francis Hodson Burnett said, “You learn things by saying them over and over and thinking about them until they stay in your mind forever.” In our society of […]
You have learned over these nearly five years that I am a passionate Norwegian (with Swedish and Danish mixed in). Celebrating the Norwegian Constitution Day, Syttende Mai (The 17th of May), has been a valued tradition in our family for nearly 45 years. When our son, Andrew, was a little boy, I woke him up […]
