This has been quite the week, hasn’t it? We went to nearby Playa Grande one day around noon this week. We’re currently in the tail end of rainy season here in Costa Rica, meaning it can rain for days, peak rainy season, so any slight break in the weather is a good excuse to travel…
Every time I came up near this guy it seemed to go this way. However I usually crept away crying because I was not the stoic this guy is! This is another unused chapter from my book With Strange Fire. Well, full disclosure, he wasn’t a boy and his name wasn’t Sue but it was…
Panel of an angel beating a man hanging over the front door of a local Catholic church. With that image in my mind I don’t think I’ll ever visit there! Stumbled across this email I wrote more than three years ago to the church board of the church we attended here in Costa Rica. I…
Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean, I need it right now! Late the other night a political meme popped up after vice president Kamala Harris’ turn on a CNN Town Hall that just blew me away! Not because I support Harris, oh no, I am not thrilled by either of the front runners. I am…
Years ago when I was writing in local publications I’d been trained by an old hard-boiled newsroom veteran to keep copious notes and hold on to my notebooks. I wish I still had my notebooks from before my move to Costa Rica because I am sure they had all sorts of weird tidbits on the…
Originally posted at Patheos No Longer Quivering March 7, 2017 Written by Suzanne Titkemeyer Today’s chapter of Lori Alexander’s book is called “Talking About Your Financial Health” It makes me sad. I’m mostly sad with it because of two reasons. First, there’s a tremendous opportunity here to give good advice that could ease peoples financial…
Last year I had a very disconcerting episode. Spring of 2022 we’d gone to stay at our favorite hotel in La Fortuna, Costa Rica, the Arenal Falls Lodge. It used to be the Green Lagoon Heath and Wellness Retreat, sitting near the hiking trails up to the Cerro Chatto, a dead volcano cone filled with…
I know, I know Etouffee is not bitter, but it’s the only thing sitting in my photos right now, sorry! “People cannot trust Christ if they are completely broken by Church leadership” “Brokenness is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It hurts, it’s not our natural state, but it’s where the marvelous…
https://withstrangefire.com/sometimes-the-good-fight-is-utterly-exhausting/(opens in a new tab) See this guy? He’s old, so sick, exhausted and old. His spines flop about, his skin shows the evidence of many difficult battles. He visits daily now, coming to drink the water in our swimming pool, graze on plants and then raiding the star fruit trees. He let me get…
One of the absolutely horrific things that happened once my aunts started carrying on like a demented Greek chorus about my mother is that memories flooded back into my brain. Things I hadn’t thought about for many a long year. Like about my bike. I cannot remember if I was eight or nine the year…