By NANCY PATRICK In case you hadn’t noticed, “smart” stuff surrounds us: phones, homes, classrooms, cars, and even a little contraption called Alexa. We can give her commands such as “set the timer for 20 minutes” or “play (song) for me.” I usually forget Alexa sits right there on a table in my den and opt to set my kitchen

By NANCY PATRICK I often wonder what will happen if I ever run out of things to write about. Not only does writing provide my primary form of expression, but it also serves as cheap therapy for all my neuroses. Those result from my brain’s constant thinking and fretting about national and international conditions I fear I cannot impact. My

By NANCY PATRICK As I recently sifted out some old and unneeded files, I found a document that really pleased me. Evidently, one of my Abilene High School seniors from the 2002-2003 school year had asked me to participate in a graduation project required by one of her other teachers. Although I didn’t remember this project, my introductory comments for

By NANCY PATRICK As a young mother with a thirteen-month-old baby boy, I lived in northern Illinois with my pastor-husband and our infant son. Other than the first five years of my life spent in my birthplace of Arkansas, I had never lived outside Texas, my adopted home state. Adjusting to my role as a new mother, a first-time pastor’s

By NANCY PATRICK Weird! Weird! Weird! That word describes my world during this pandemic. I thank God that danger, exhaustion, sacrifice, and life-threatening do not describe my daily life. This period of COVID-19 isolation, illness, shortage, and death has invaded my life in an unprecedented way. The closest similarities, World War II and the Great Depression, differed greatly from the