Dearest Rachel – Between our collection of anime and television shows, I used to joke about how we were gathering up enough entertainment to see us through a long, debilitating final illness – or at least, an extended period of time without internet. Only, your last day was just like every other day; everything wasContinue reading “The Things We Meant to Watch Together”
Monthly Archives: August 2022
A Tempting Cliché
Dearest Rachel – Ever since I let my subscription to that dating app expire, I’ve been waiting for the shoes to drop for each of the last two ladies that I’ve been speaking with. For a while there, it seemed the closest I was going to come to that was when Aileen informed me thatContinue reading “A Tempting Cliché”
Wandering Through the Aftermath
Dearest Rachel – The breeze is cool this morning as I step outside, or at least, it’s cool for the month of August. The sun, while exulting in its complete dominance of a cloudless sky, and intense enough that I need to maintain a near-permanent squint as I make my way east across shadeless sectionsContinue reading “Wandering Through the Aftermath”
A Wish to Return
Dearest Rachel – Last night, I found myself dreaming about our trip to San Antonio, and wishing we could go back there. I’m not entirely sure why. Oh, don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of good reasons to want to. The place we stayed at was really quite something, with its expansive room andContinue reading “A Wish to Return”
from Rachel: The Watchman at Your Thought-Closet Door
Think of a time your emotions got out of control. What kinds of thoughts or actions resulted? “Dishwasher incident” Emotion: “first annoyed and needlessly hurried, then a little bit cheated, then under attack and angry – rageful – furious” Thought: “He was deliberately being obnoxious and trying to make me furious, and ruining my pre-organization.”Continue reading “from Rachel: The Watchman at Your Thought-Closet Door”
The Lifeline to ‘One’
Dearest Rachel – Along with Nightelf, whose tales of balancing personal life amid the chaos of being a professional academic, she was my inspiration for putting together this collection of letters to you for in the first place. She has a knack for taking mundane vignettes of her life, and making them amusing in aContinue reading “The Lifeline to ‘One’”
So Why Make the Offer in the First Place?
Dearest Rachel – For all that I’ve been saying that every day this week was going to be a little unusual – at least, insofar as none of them have been a typical ‘9 to 5’ day at the ‘office’ – that hasn’t proven to be quite true. Today is actually likely to be aContinue reading “So Why Make the Offer in the First Place?”
Way Too Soon
Dearest Rachel – I know I deliberately retired to the bedroom early last night in order to get up with enough time to get ready and be at church by seven, but I meant to wake up at five. Two a.m. is way too soon. And yet, that’s when I found myself awake, mulling overContinue reading “Way Too Soon”
Inverted Day
Dearest Rachel – I suppose that title might be overstating things a little bit. From the sound of it, you might gather that this is going to be a day in which I conduct my business at night, and sleep during the day. And while there are plenty of people who do that for aContinue reading “Inverted Day”
A Tight Fist or an Open Palm?
Dearest Rachel – There’s a meme that I think existed when you were still around; whether you’d recognize it or not is debatable. After nineteen months (and no, I haven’t forgotten, but there is more to write to you about today than merely commemorating the passage of time), you may well have forgotten about allContinue reading “A Tight Fist or an Open Palm?”
If The Lights Are On…
Dearest Rachel – I’ll be honest, the thing that pulls me away from work today (and it does so earlier than yesterday, so my working window is that much smaller) isn’t nearly as unusual as yesterday’s visit from Lisa to finalize the remodel. Although, now that I think about it, the reason I’m coming homeContinue reading “If The Lights Are On…”
Paid In Full
Dearest Rachel – I was going to start off this week by telling you about how certain people have asked me on occasion what a ‘normal’ day is like at the ‘office’ for me, only to go on into great detail about how there isn’t a single day this week that’s going to be aContinue reading “Paid In Full”
Take Him Out of the Ba’al Game
Dearest Rachel – Sometimes, I don’t know what to do or think about Daniel. Some of the views he listens to and believes seem so ‘out there’ that I wonder where they come from. I realize just about any kind of crazy idea can be found out there on the internet, but how is itContinue reading “Take Him Out of the Ba’al Game”
from Rachel: Roots and Fruits
Hebrews 12:15 shows the link between roots and fruit. What does it warn against? “a bitter root growing up to cause trouble and defile many.” What is the “fruit” that the writer of Hebrews suggests springs from the “root” of bitterness? “trouble and defiling” Draw some fruit in the margin and label them with theContinue reading “from Rachel: Roots and Fruits”
Live and In Person
Dearest Rachel – Some time before you left, back when I was still considering assembling some form of YouTube channel, I was reading up on artificial intelligence, and how it was able to compose music. As I had no particular talent in that field, it seemed like a great idea for coming up with originalContinue reading “Live and In Person”
Unable to Hover
Dearest Rachel – I don’t know about you, but there were times in my high school career when I would stay out fairly late. For instance, Friday nights during home football games, we in the band would be there for the halftime performance, and generally stayed around to play something when our team scored orContinue reading “Unable to Hover”
Your Big Brother is Dying
Dearest Rachel – There were a lot of factors I could point to that conspired to present last night’s dream. There’s been all the work that’s been done her at our house, and the issues involved with navigating around everything while it’s been worked on. Hand in glove with that is the current issue withContinue reading “Your Big Brother is Dying”
A Dash of Cold Water
Dearest Rachel – In the last five or so years of your life, you decided to give up on your longstanding rule about messing with your hair (up until that point, you were afraid of losing its natural curl that you, like Freida from Peanuts, were so proud of), and dye it going forward. BetterContinue reading “A Dash of Cold Water”
Wobbly Wake-up
Dearest Rachel – I think it must be a symptom of old age – or at least, of the aging process itself. I either wake up hours before the sun does, or I find myself sleeping in past what I would consider to be a reasonable hour. And some days, like this morning, I manageContinue reading “Wobbly Wake-up”
Gray Over Tan
Dearest Rachel – After a weekend of completely overcast skies – and the rain to go with it – today is only partially gray. And I’m fine with that. It’s nice that I don’t have to worry about it threatening to rain again today – the sun’s out just enough to assure me of that.Continue reading “Gray Over Tan”
The Things I Can’t Relate
Dearest Rachel – For all the times recently that I’ve gone into detail about this or that dream, there are those that I can’t relate to you – at least, not here. Sometimes, like this morning, it’s simply because the moment I open my eyes, everything pops like an enormous soap bubble. The only thingContinue reading “The Things I Can’t Relate”
from Rachel: Faulty Assumptions
How are assumptions and thoughts connected? “They are foundational – the groundwork” Did you tuck away some faulty assumptions as an older teen or young adult? List three examples. “I’ll do better later – I’ll have more time then. “A little more won’t hurt – I’ve already come this far (‘I might as well beContinue reading “from Rachel: Faulty Assumptions”
No Plot, No Point… No Problem?
Dearest Rachel – There are times when I don’t know why I’m filling this space with the scenes I see at night. Most of them don’t have a story to them, and the ones that do leave me wondering if they were supposed to mean anything, and being unable to come up with any reasonableContinue reading “No Plot, No Point… No Problem?”
One Last Throw of the Dice
Dearest Rachel – Well, my subscription to that dating website/app is about to expire, and I’m not sure I’m really going to miss it. It’s given me a fair amount of fodder to write you about, to be sure, but up until now, there hasn’t really been all that much in terms of real results.Continue reading “One Last Throw of the Dice”
A Million Words With You
Dearest Rachel – When I first started writing to you after your departure, I wondered how long it would take to get to this point. Well, that’s not entirely true. Originally, it hadn’t crossed my mind to try to actually send you a letter every day – I was thinking of trying to tell yourContinue reading “A Million Words With You”
Broken Guardrails
Dearest Rachel – So, this morning I was out walking to the ‘office’ for the first time in longer than I’d care to admit. Not only had it been a long time since I walked, the weather first thing in the morning was ideal for it, being bright, sunny and with temperatures in the midContinue reading “Broken Guardrails”
You’d Always Check In
Dearest Rachel – I have a hard time with the whole “What Would [fill in the blank; it’s usually Jesus, but some people use other names as well where applicable] Do?” question sometimes. Not because I don’t know what they’d do in the given situation, necessarily, but because, with enough rationalization, you can claim justificationContinue reading “You’d Always Check In”
Red Steam in the Sunrise
Dearest Rachel – I’ve made this distinction before; it’s a rare thing that one’s daydreams and one’s dreams should coincide. But this morning’s screenings clearly must’ve resulted from having won the lottery or something like that. I mean, sure, I probably acquired the thing for kopecks on the ruble, but fixing up an old SovietContinue reading “Red Steam in the Sunrise”
The Modesty of a Child
Dearest Rachel – It’s something of a shame, but it sometimes seems that it requires a special occasion for the family to get together at a restaurant after church these days, when that used to be a weekly tradition. Then again, this is the second week in a row that we’ve been able to doContinue reading “The Modesty of a Child”
No Footprints
Dearest Rachel – It seems that I should write you about today’s (or rather, this weekend’s, since I get to listen to it three times over) sermon, because it hits fairly close to home, especially for the two of us. Not that it isn’t common to all mankind, but given where you are, there’s aContinue reading “No Footprints”
from Rachel: It’s a Woman’s Prerogative to Change Her Mind
Look at the word mind, and write words that describe the mind of Christ. M (Psalm 8:1; 103:8; Matthew 11:29) – “Majestic, Merciful, Meek/Mild” I (Luke 23:4; Titus 2:7) – “Innocent, Integrity” N (Philippians 4:8; Revelation 19:16; Psalm 34:18) – “Noble, Name (?), Near (?)” D (2 Timothy 1:7; 2:15) – “Disciplined, Discerning” How doesContinue reading “from Rachel: It’s a Woman’s Prerogative to Change Her Mind”
At Home For Once
Dearest Rachel – I realize the place has changed dramatically since your departure; you would hardly recognize the kitchen, and its new layout. Even I forget where some things are stored nowadays (in fact, I still couldn’t find enough trivets to go around last night, even though I know there’s more than the one IContinue reading “At Home For Once”
So, ah… What’s This Button Do?
Dearest Rachel – Did I mention about this when Kris was over on Monday? She tried to plug the vacuum cleaner into an outlet in the kitchen, so as to clean up what few crumbs I’d dropped on the floor since the protective cardboard had been peeled up… and nothing happened. She tried several differentContinue reading “So, ah… What’s This Button Do?”
What Can I Do?
Dearest Rachel – So, last night we wrapped up Colossians in our Bible study. Joel had everybody go over what each of us thought was the most individually significant part of the last four lessons. For my part, what struck me was the last section of the third chapter, where Paul talks about various responsibilitiesContinue reading “What Can I Do?”
Digging Out From Under
Dearest Rachel – Back in my relative childhood, when the local mall was actually an everything-under-one-roof-mall rather than an open-air shopping center, and bookstores were actually a thing (and the Amazon was nothing more than a really big river in South America), the place included a Kroch’s & Brentano’s that was so big it neededContinue reading “Digging Out From Under”
Shoeless Day
Dearest Rachel – Yesterday, since Kris came over to clean the house (for the first time since both the kitchen and laundry rooms were completed), I stayed home from the ‘office’ in order to be there. As you well know, I don’t like having to owe people for extended periods of time – it’s oneContinue reading “Shoeless Day”
Merchandising Dreams
Dearest Rachel – There are some days when I have a letter to write you begun in my head – I may even start to put it down in the cloud to post the next day (assuming there’s a time in the afternoon when I don’t simply decide to hang out in the family roomContinue reading “Merchandising Dreams”
Silent and Sleeping
Dearest Rachel – Mornings are the best times I’m given to compose something for you; Daniel is still asleep (so I don’t feel compelled to hang out with him, wasting time – although to call spending time with him ‘wasting’ time is more than a little uncharitable. Still, I feel I could be more productiveContinue reading “Silent and Sleeping”
Letters to Rachel 