By Nancy Patrick My dad used a phrase to refer to someone or something he considered useless as “not worth a plugged nickel.” In my old age, I think that phrase may relate to my own sense of worth or lack thereof. For many years I enjoyed an abundance of energy, a good brain, a rewarding career, and a relatively

By Nancy Patrick On July 20, 2025, Dr. Matt Cook, my interim pastor at the time, preached a sermon that has bothered me ever since hearing it. I read the passage from Jeremiah 12 repeatedly during the sermon and have continued reading it and looking up commentary on it. I’m not sure why the topic of unfairness has troubled me

By Nancy Patrick On Saturday, July 12, my husband and I hosted a memorial reception to honor my late sister, Peggy Smith Burkman, who died Jan. 10. Because of complex relationships in her life, the family had postponed the celebration to honor her. In spite of the delay, I think all who attended experienced a time of understanding and healing.

By Nancy Patrick I think I have become more naïve in my senior years than I was in midlife. I ponder such ideas as motivation, value, family, forgiveness, understanding, and all the other virtues Galatians 5:22-23 lists as fruits of the Spirit: joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I want to believe that most people exhibit goodness.

By Nancy Patrick I used to love playing with kaleidoscopes. I hardly ever see them these days, probably because people can do so many entertaining things on the computer. The kaleidoscope  is small, personal, and physically manipulated by the user. The kaleidoscope never bored me because every time I twisted the end cap, all the bits of colored plastic rearranged

By Nancy Patrick I just had a shocking revelation about myself. As I looked through old essays I had written years ago, I thought I might find one to revise and send to Loretta for Spirit of Abilene. I found the title “An Immodest Proposal: A Perspective on the Survival of the United States.”  I thought, “What a great title!”

By Nancy Patrick As I sat on my canopied swing in the backyard one Saturday morning in May, the soft breeze gently ruffled the leaves on the three-year-old burr oak tree near me. Another three-year-old tree, a Chinese Pistache, grows across the yard from the burr oak. Both trees are doing amazingly well for our Texas climate. We had to

By Nancy Patrick The older I get, the more I live in the past tense. I mean this, not a figurative statement, but one based in reality. Of course, at seventy-five-years of age, logic tells me that in all likelihood I have lived more than 75 percent of my life.  I know some people of my generation sadden when thinking