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Senior high school students have been doing it for decades. At the end of their final year, the class concocts a few elaborate, annoying, sometimes funny ways to mark their exit.
Well. We who …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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5/13/26
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She was there with you, surrounding you, while you grew arms and legs and eyelids. Your heart beat in harmony with hers. Her blood was your blood; her oxygen, yours. She kept you safe and protected …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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5/6/26
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When you have more than one child, it becomes difficult to remember their names. Oh, you know who’s who. And it is easy to pick them out in a crowd of other kids: “mine…mine…not mine…looks …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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4/29/26
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From the first sing-song prayers of childhood to the fervent pleas of hurting hearts, I learned how to talk to God from examples all around me.
It started as a toddler. Jesus loved me, this I …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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4/22/26
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I have plenty to worry about. One of my ears sticks out farther than the other. I get my kids’ and grandkids’ names mixed up with long-dead relatives. If gas gets any more expensive, I will be …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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4/15/26
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He hitches up his jeans with his thumbs. The wrinkles around his eyes deepen as he stares out the window. From his toothpick-parted lips come the words he has waited months to utter.
“It’s …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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4/8/26
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On Easter Sunday, I always wore a new dress to church. My shoes didn’t tie like everyday sneakers. They were secured with a single strap across the top of my lace-cuffed socks and buckled on the …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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4/1/26
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When I was growing up, smoking was as normal as breathing. We thought it meant we were mature and worldly, and it was a given that we would all smoke someday.
My brother, Jim, always the …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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3/25/26
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I brought flowers to mom this week. Springtime stems of forsythia, dogwood, and lilac. It’s too early for the real thing—but silk is fine.
March was mom’s favorite month, and on the first …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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3/18/26
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The sounds of our world are changing. We’ve muffled the noises; changed rings to tones, buzzes to beeps, and bangs to cushioned snicks. Doors are closed and lives are insulated from unexpected or …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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3/11/26
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God gives a special gift to every woman who becomes a mother-in-law.
She is endowed by her Creator with the ability to send her daughter-in-law into frenzied, Tasmanian-devil-like housecleaning …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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3/4/26
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I’ve shared my life, bed, air, and space with my husband for forty-one years. We have a joint bank account, a sofa that we both sit on, and I’ve even been known to let him sample food from my …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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2/25/26
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In today’s world of unending distraction, it may be time to give ourselves a day off. How about we shut things down again on Sundays?
The simplicity of Sunday was a Godsend to our hearts. We …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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2/18/26
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Morning People shimmer. Their perky little faces glow like lighthouse beacons, glaring a cheery “hello” in the gray light of dawn.
Hair all slicked back, eyes as clear and gunk-free as …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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2/11/26
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The moms of our own childhoods were not much different from us, but they did have one valuable tool for child rearing that we in the 21st century have dropped. And sold. And thrown away.
Growing …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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2/4/26
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A house is not a home without a junk drawer. It’s the one place everybody in your house will sooner or later find themselves rummaging through, muttering frantic words, like: “I KNOW I saw it in …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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1/28/26
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I have a giant jar of pennies on my bookshelf. The coins on the bottom have been in there for several years, and new ones go in regularly. The jar has a heft to it; whenever I consider cashing them …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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1/21/26
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It takes a lifetime to grow Grandma Hands.
A little girl is born with tiny fingers and doughy palms. Moist and pliable, they bend and flex for baby games.
Patty-cake. Peek-a-boo. Her hands …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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1/14/26
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The only phone booth in my hometown stood on the corner of Main and Hibbard streets.
It was silver aluminum, with blue panels halfway up each side. Glass topped the blue walls, giving a clear …
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By Robin Garrison Leach
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1/7/26
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