Liz Flaherty's Blog, page 17

Songs of Winter by Liz Flaherty

Friday morning early: It's snowing. My cottonwood is wearing white on her broad and aging shoulders. There is a stillness that only snowfall brings--and then only when the wind isn't buffeting things around. 

I remember snow days when I was in school. My dad was never home, because he worked on the highway department, which lent a different kind of freedom to the days. If the snow was deep, which it often was, my brothers built tunnels. We slid down the hill behind the barn. On wood-cutting days,...

Baby Jesus, Respect, and Never All by Liz Flaherty

Baby Jesus was found. I saw it on Facebook, and an ache I didn't even realize I had was relieved. 
It wasn't a real baby, of course, but a statue taken from the downtown nativity scene. There've been TV shows about lost and stolen Baby Jesus figures. They're usually found, as the one in Peru was. Sometimes they're damaged. They're always treated disrespectfully. The pain of that disrespect is very real. 
Even if I were not a Christian, even if the nativity scene wasn't something so important to me...

I Liked 2023 by Liz Flaherty

I liked 2023. Well, maybe not that much. Not enough to be sorry to see it go. Like many others, I'm exhausted by its shenanigans. By politics as a whole. By the state of health care if you choose not to live in a metropolitan area. By J-turns and traffic circles for the aid and comfort of certain areas being more important than well kept roads for the rest of us. 
But wait. Those things aren't the fault of the year that just passed. Although they are the fault of the times, and I guess that's rea...

The Christmas Bears by Sherri Easley

It was the first Christmas after losing my son, and I was struggling to find joy in anything, much less Christmas. I had not put up my tree and there was no trace of any holiday cheer.

My daughter saw a post on a social media Mom’s page, asking if anyone had experience in repairing memory bears. Not for the first time, my daughter volunteered me. I am beyond blessed and sometimes frustrated that she seems to believe I can fix or make anything when it comes to sewing.

I got the woman’s information,...

More to Come... by Lee Ann Murphy

As the winter dusk creeps across the sky and shadows begin to fill the yard, I see the reflections of theChristmas tree lights in the window and so I find myself pondering on the year justpast. Like all years, it was, as Charles Dickens once wrote, the bestof times and the worst of times. 2023 was a time of transition andchange. Although I resist change, I have learned that life is an ongoingprocess and that whether or not I like it, change is a part of that.

Just as the seasons change aro...

How A Festival of Mini-Trees Revived Christmas For Me by Anna Taylor Sweringen

Anniversaries, birthdays, even seasonal holidays are just days on the calendar for me and my husband. Often, it’s well wishes from friends in ecards, texts and on Facebook notifying us that a reason to celebrate has arrived. The only exception I’m happy to say is Christmas. 

Let us return to 2014…

I sat on the board of directors of an ecumenical center in Long Island called the Parish Resource Center. It helps church lay people do tasks assigned to them. Lead a bible study, teach a Sunday school c...

"...a more meaningful level..." by Alana Lorens

This gift doesn’t cost a penny—but can pay off for years to come

Before I was lucky enough to retire and become a full-time writer, I was a divorce attorney A phenomenon many divorce attorneys like me encountered each year between mid-November and January 2 is the sudden drop-off of clients and client activity. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s the holiday lull, the last-ditch effort to grasp the fast-fading warm feeling of family or at least the rational attempt to try to preserve the illusion tha...

A Very Silly New Year’s Eve by Marla White

I’ve always loved the holiday season. Christmas music in October? Bring it! My roommate forbade me from putting the lights on the house until after Thanksgiving, but Friday morning at 8:30 I was up on the roof with my multi-colored icicle lights. But my favorite part of the holiday season as an adult is New Year’s Eve. Because of the partying? Well, a little of that, but not the way you might think. 

A little backstory…  

At fourteen, New Year’s Eve meant babysitting jobs were plentiful. Of course...

The Year Santa Brought A Doll by Patricia Bradley

Pat, her sister, and the redhaired dolls.When I was a kid, every year about the middle of October, a wonderful item arrived in our mailbox. The Sears and Roebuck Toy Catalog. The first day or so, my parents made my sister and me draw straws to see who got to look through it first.
I think my sister had an inside track since she almost always got the short straw. And sometimes, because I was the older sister, I was supposed to let her go first. I still don’t know who made up that rule.

Sometimes, I...

Feeling Nostalgic for Christmases Past by Maria Imbalzano

When I was a child, the anticipation of Christmas was overwhelming. Do you remember those feelings of hope, eagerness, and belief in the fantasy that only a child could have? I would write my list to Santa and ask for a few things that I wanted after seeing commercials on TV. My list always included a doll or a baby carriage and maybe a board game.

I grew up in Trenton, NJ and back then, Trenton was a beautiful city. The main stores were Arnold Constable, Sears, Lit Brothers, Yards, and Dunham...