by Barbara Lishko | Dec 21, 2024
"Unplanned" is often used as a scapegoat and reason to justify the unthinkable. This is not what I planned... fill in the blank. Most of my life was not what I planned. Yet as I look back there is evidence of God doing something good in all those unplanned moments. I...
by Barbara Lishko | Dec 12, 2024
On this Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I pray for our country and all peoples of the Americas. Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen. Forty-five years have passed in what feels like an instant. Unforgettable are the wild...
by Barbara Lishko | Dec 2, 2024
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that humans, starting at a very young age, tend to gather stuff. I observed this firsthand with my grandkids and any child I’ve had the good fortune to spend time with. “Mine,” shouts the toddler, and thus begins the desire to...
by Barbara Lishko | Oct 27, 2024
Is anything more frustrating than a tree that will not produce the fruit it was designed to deliver? After purchasing a lemon tree and following all the prescribed directions for it to flourish, we rightfully expected to find lemons. Instead, we got a dead tree that...
by Barbara | Oct 20, 2024
I know what it feels like to lose a baby through a miscarriage. Not once, but twice. I understand the crushing pain of infertility for years. I, too, have grandbabies that I hope to someday meet in Heaven, who were also miscarried. Even though I never met my own...
by Barbara | Oct 13, 2024
Have you ever wished you could talk to your younger self and share more ingenious ways of doing things? I've been thinking about this as I age. I've grown wiser. I fought with my neighbor when I was in sixth grade. We decided we should duke it out after school....
by Barbara Lishko | Sep 29, 2024
As a teenager, I dreamed of becoming a nurse and moved toward that goal in college. I worked at the local hospital, so I knew what I was getting into- and then I met my husband, who whisked me off to beautiful South Korea for the first year of our marriage. As my...
by Barbara Lishko | Sep 16, 2024
It's my least favorite time of the year when antagonistic, badly-behaved politicians claim to have what America needs by bombarding the airwaves, commercials, and billboards. Rather than bringing peace and assurance that we are in good hands, I cringe. As a veteran...
by Barbara Lishko | Sep 2, 2024
Over the years, I have opened my heart and shared many stories about my spiritual journey as a Catholic Christian and how God has allowed me to play a tiny part in His plans. I have given the reader an inside peek at our ever-evolving family and some goofy situations...
by Barbara Lishko | Aug 25, 2024
Retirement has allowed us the freedom to bounce back and forth between locations inhabited by our children and grandchildren. Sometimes, we fly; other times, we take the long, primarily gorgeous route. We're talking about eight delightful hours, just a scant twelve...
by Barbara Lishko | Aug 14, 2024
When asked about our recent vacation in Kauai, I enthusiastically replied, "It was really nice." That same daughter later inquired about a dessert she had made: "That's nice; I like it." Maahmum!!! Quit saying nice! Use other words. She overheard me using that...
by Barbara Lishko | Aug 4, 2024
Each time we sneak away this summer, we come to the mountains. As beautiful as the desert is in the summer, having your flip-flops melt on the pavement gets expensive. While a sauna is fabulous at the spa, my personal sauna on wheels has turned my car into a sweatbox....
by Barbara Lishko | Jul 28, 2024
In our germ-a-phobic, post-pandemic world, it’s hard to imagine why Christ would request that the remaining fragments from feeding five thousand be gathered up. For what? Ewww, somebody else touched it, and I won’t eat it. Clearly, we have never gone hungry. Sadly,...
by Barbara | Jul 14, 2024
St. Paul was elated due to an abundance of revelations from Christ. The Lord allowed a thorn in his flesh, an agent of Satan to beat him. (2Cor 12:7)To be elated is to be ecstatically happy. That's the kind of joy that requires beatings to lessen. I think I want that...
by Barbara | Jul 2, 2024
Dutifully following my new husband, we slid into our circa 1960 Japanese right-hand drive automobile. It was the tiniest car I had ever ridden in besides Autotopia at Disneyland. Maneuvering through the streets of Seoul, S. Korea, felt like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. As we...
by Barbara Lishko | Jun 23, 2024
Back in the day, there was a well-known comedy sketch by Bill Cosby. The premise involved a conversation between God and Noah who was asked to build an ark. One of the key lines spoken by God in this humorous exchange is when Noah starts to push back and...
by Barbara Lishko | Jun 16, 2024
My father walked in angry and weary. Lifting up his pant leg he showed his young children the gauze wrapped ankle covered in blood. As a mailman, dogs often stood between him and delivering mail. Dad was the oldest of four children. His parents were of German descent...
by Barbara Lishko | Jun 9, 2024
How many times do we make excuses for our sins? “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.” (Gen 3:13). Sadly, I am guilty. I’d go so far as to say evil doesn’t even have to lift a finger- I fall easily on my own. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned; it’s been...
by Barbara Lishko | Jun 3, 2024
“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like a child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 18:3-4 My young life was a preparation for adulthood....
by Barbara Lishko | May 19, 2024
“If you don’t stop and wait for me, I’ll turn around and go home.” Those fateful words burst from my lips, as a new bride. I was in unfamiliar territory and being pulled downstream in a river of Koreans at Kimpo International Airport- Seoul, S. Korea. My husband was...
by Barbara Lishko | May 12, 2024
It’s Mother’s Day once again. I am blessed to have celebrated over forty Mother’s Days. Before we had kids, we were guilty of making “my kid will never…” statements. Words we soon learned to eat. I discovered a clever kitchen towel a few months ago that read, “As soon...