By NANCY PATRICK Many people have suffered from boredom and lethargy during the COVID-19 quarantine. My husband, Mike, and I, both retired for several years, had already adjusted our schedules for more home time than younger families who suddenly had to miss work and school. With the time and limitations associated with social restrictions, we undertook a major DIY project
Read moreBy 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
Read moreBy 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
Read moreBy NANCY PATRICK In 1624, British poet John Donne wrote “Meditation 17” as part of a larger collection of devotional pieces. The theme of the meditation relates to the interconnectedness of humankind. The first part delineates how people—regardless of location, race, social status, or religion—connect to one another as parts of humanity even if the individuals know nothing of the
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Editor’s Note: March is Women’s History Month. Nancy Patrick writes about a woman she met when helping her son move to Virginia to begin a position as pastor of a historic church. Send stories or suggestions for stories about women to feature during Women’s History Month to editor@spiritofabilene.com By NANCY PATRICK My son’s position as a pastor in a historic
Read moreBy NANCY PATRICK In the old Forest Gump movie, Forest tells people that his Mama always said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” I wonder how much truth that statement contains. Some of its veracity depends on whether or not the chocolate box has labels in the lid. Some boxes say simply
Read moreBy NANCY PATRICK My maternal grandmother entered the world in 1901 via Arkansas. She later supplemented her maiden name, Addie Irene Moore, with Carl Carr’s last name. I didn’t know any of her family although I don’t remember why. Perhaps they lived elsewhere or had already died by the time my cousins and I arrived in the 1950s. Whatever the
Read moreBy NANCY PATRICK I have always loved language. I like saying some words, writing others, thinking others, reading many more. I guess my love of language led me to choose an English major in college. I earned both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English with the goal of teaching it to high school students. Some of my public school
Read moreBy NANCY PATRICK I did not experience the weight and burden of grief until I was an adult. Although one of my uncles and a grandfather died during my childhood, their deaths did not directly affect me because they did not play an active role in my life. My family had experienced generally good health and few accidents, so surprise
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Spirit Of Abilene 