health & welfare – Page 2

When Your Foundation Falls Away

A man in a red plaid shirt and dark pants tumbles upside down through a gray, cloud-filled sky, arms raised and boots pointed upward.

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” That’s kind of what happened to me, only the foundation wasn’t destroyed, it was just gone. I fell down an entire flight of marble steps (10 of them) in May, without remembering how it happened. I guess my mind decided to block it out. HubbyContinueContinue reading “When Your Foundation Falls Away”

Bible Occupations: Service-Related

Historical reenactment shows robed scribes writing with quills on parchment at a wooden table, with ink pots and tools, conveying focused biblical legal records.

Most service-related occupations were carried out in the marketplace. An important place in the life of Oriental communities for conducting business, and more. As we have learned in the other posts of this series, the marketplace also served as a meeting place, a kind of employment office, and even as a preliminary court. In thisContinueContinue reading “Bible Occupations: Service-Related”

A Fall in the Dark

A dim room frames a rain-speckled window with blue curtains, revealing a misty wooded landscape and creating a quiet, melancholy mood.

As the saying goes, when it rains it pours, and it’s been a real deluge for me lately! Well, I’ve done it again. Fallen, and this time down an entire flight of stairs. Marble steps, all 10 of them. I’ve decided I need a suit of armor and accident insurance. Or walking lessons. Or inContinueContinue reading “A Fall in the Dark”

Bible Occupations: The Marketplace

Ancient marketplace scene: a seated merchant serves a veiled customer beside colorful textiles, pottery, and onlookers in warm, dusty light.

As we have learned earlier in this series, the occupations and tasks performed by men and women were many and varied. And we have also learned that because many occupations were a mixture of cottage industry and manufacturing on a larger scale, the home and field section tends to overlap with jobs in the marketplace.ContinueContinue reading “Bible Occupations: The Marketplace”

Mamma Anna’s Menu

Festive dining table with hand-painted floral plates, wine glasses, cutlery, napkin, and roasted vegetables, creating a warm, welcoming setting.

Everything I know about cooking I learned from my Italian mother-in-law! (Wouldn’t that be a great title?) Except it’s not true. 🤔 I already knew how to cook and didn’t need any lessons from Mamma Anna. But she did teach me about menu planning, albeit second-hand. And I learned a lot about cooking from livingContinueContinue reading “Mamma Anna’s Menu”

These Hard Times: Time to Reset?

Hand holding a smartphone displaying “pause and reset” in elegant script, conveying a calm, reflective invitation to rest.

At the risk of sounding like a doomsday prophet I’d say that difficult times are upon us and bound to get worse. Financial woes, unstable governments, pandemics, alarming Great Resets, crumbling values. There are also existential threats to health and the environment, according to experts. Indeed, on our summer treks people everyone everywhere spoke ofContinueContinue reading “These Hard Times: Time to Reset?”