When I became a believer during my senior year in high school, I loved studying the names of God. I had a big poster filled with God’s names and attributes: I Am, El Shaddai, Elohim, etc… It was a black background with His names in different colors filling the poster. Anyone remember it? The poster was a staple in Christian bookstores in the ’80s. It traveled with me to college and back and to my first apartment. I would meditate on this visual reminder in times of stress, and it brought so much comfort. By the time I finally retired it, the edges were tattered, and it had countless creases…

If you visit the Babylon Archeological Site in Iraq today, you will not find the Ishtar Gate. To see that, you must travel to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. The original gate was disassembled brick by brick, shipped to Europe, restored, and reassembled to grace the halls of the museum. However, you will see a recreation of the gate standing as a sentinel at the head of the Processional Way. This gate is just one of  eight gates into the ancient city of Babylon, but it is surely the most important. Nebuchadnezzar’s passion was to make Babylon a masterpiece, and the Ishtar Gate was the jewel in the crown.…

Rosemaling, the Norwegian folk art originally developed as painting flowers on wood, provides some texture for my story. Joe’s mom serves mujaddara,  a Middle Eastern dish of lentils, rice, and caramelized onions, in a beautiful rosemaled platter. https://www.dailyscandinavian.com/the-story-of-norwegian-rosemaling/ Rosemaling went out of fashion in the nineteenth century, but it’s seen a resurgence with the popularity of Frozen. I think rosemaling is just lovely, and YouTube has some great tutorials. Enjoy!

The fish blinked her long lashes and helped you climb into a kuphar that the babbler birds wove just for you. You climbed in, and the wind blew you here. Who would have guessed that navigating the Euphrates and the Tigris would look essentially the same for 27 centuries? In Nebuchadnezzar’s day, willow roundboats covered with leather were the primary mode of transportation down the river. Herodotus says they paddled with the current, and tradesmen would sell their wares as they moved downstream. When they were ready to go north again, they sold the leather and willow and went north overland.   By American Colony (Jerusalem). Photo Department – Library…