Emily Parke Chase
My husband Gene wanted a new desk, but he had to wait until Christmas when I gave him one as a gift. Unfortunately, the desk came unassembled, and Gene had to spend many painful hours reading instructions, inserting screws, and gluing parts before he could enjoy the benefits of his gift. Thousands of years ago, …
Read More Advent 2017 – Day 5Have you ever waited and waited for something only to discover the result is not what you expected? My mother was an avid gardener. Early in December one year, as a joke, my dad bought her an enormous bag of peat moss. He wrapped it, tied on a big red bow and placed it under …
Read More Advent 2017 – Day 4Welcome back to the third in this series of Advent devotionals on the theme “Waiting for God to Appear.” When my children were little, they found it harder and harder to wait as the holiday drew near. We agreed that they would each be allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve. One year my …
Read More Advent 2017 – Day 3Are Christmas packages starting to appear under your tree? You can see them. You might even shake them. You can lift them and test the weight. But you know you can’t open them yet. Welcome back to the second of our Advent devotionals on “Waiting for God to Appear.” In Genesis 6-9, Noah learned what …
Read More Advent 2017 – Day 2If you have looked around you, signs of the Christmas season are everywhere. Colorful lights decorate houses and trees, malls are full of frantic shoppers, carols float through the air. Children wait impatiently for the holiday to arrive. But before Christmas arrives, an important season must come first. It is called Advent, a time of …
Read More Advent 2017 – Day 1Now that my husband and I are officially old and living in a retirement setting, we have been asked to participate in a course at Messiah College where first-year students interview oldsters about their life journey. The students interview their subjects on three different occasions and then write up a paper drawing some conclusions that …
Read More Free FallRecently I picked up a coffee table book about the Ghost Army of World War II. This entire army unit was assigned the task of subterfuge, to make a small unit of about 1000 men appear to be a force of about 30,000 soldiers. They used an arsenal of inflatable tanks, false radio transmissions, and …
Read More Ghost ArmyTowards the end of May, my husband and I moved to a retirement community. We’ve had a month or two to settle in to our new apartment, so last weekend, my mother came from Massachusetts to check out the accommodations. We laughed: Most residents here have plenty of gray hair, and none of them can …
Read More Family ReunionEver have a James Bond moment? Theater-goers hold their breath during movie chase scenes. They watch stuntmen screech around corners, drive over cliffs and do controlled spins. Stuntmen don’t have to worry about an unexpected vehicle that might appear barreling down the highway. For them, every movement has been carefully choreographed and thought out ahead …
Read More A James Bond momentThe deed is done! We are officially ensconced in our new home! After months of sorting-tossing-donating, packing, repairing, and cleaning, we are at last able to enjoy the fruits of our labor. But that small word “our” encompasses far more than the labor of just my husband and myself. So many people helped us along …
Read More A final “Moving Experience”