Sometimes our mind is subject to the whims of chance. Thoughts can come into our mind randomly, causing us to react emotionally. We are nudged to smile or lose our temper.

Last October, my mother, Charlotte Ann Despain Crandell, passed away after a prolonged bout of dementia. I have been gathering her history and have found treasures upon treasures of love and faith from this woman.

The Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit was a place of paradise with everything there for the taking. Living in a state of bliss, they got along perfectly. No disagreements, no frustrations, no adversity. But it is questionable if they were happy.

Sometimes I am puzzled at the respect we pay to the idea of falling in love. We watch television, movies, read romance stories and listen to songs in the media.

I have often read the Parable of the Ten Virgins in the Gospel of Matthew and wondered what a modern version of the story might look like. I came up with prevailing attitudes that are cross-generational.

There is a controversy as to who really chopped down the cherry tree. Was it young George Washington or young Abraham Lincoln? Some say it was Lincoln, and some argue it was Washington.

This last month, I have been more diligent in my prayers and scripture study. I have been waking up at 4:30 in the morning and going upstairs to pray and read scriptures. No, I don’t set the alarm; my eyes just pop open, and I lay there thinking.

I have a couple of eighth graders who are starting to take an interest in politics. Sometimes they ask me soul-searching questions that cause me to dig in and search for answers.

Among the Christmas lights, the tinsel, baking and shopping, our family goes caroling to the seniors in our community.

In winter, I have often stood in the icicle air and gazed up at the starlit sky. The pinpricks of light shimmer and flicker in the velvet blackness, while their reflections, like millions of candles, dance across the frozen snow. The whole world sleeps under the warmth of an icy blanket. My soul is filled with indescribable peace as I marvel at the grandeur of it all. I think of how the snow covered the autumn leaves and the dark, bare ground and how when the snow melts into spring, the world will be transformed into a brilliant green world of new life.