Note: After December 2, all Another Way columns will be posted only on my personal blog, FindingHarmonyBlog.com, a week after they are first sent to newspapers, rather than here on Third Way website. All current personal email subscribers to Another Way will receive my weekly column via MailChimp. Another Way Newspaper Column for week of December 2, 2016 The Covenant That Binds This past year we celebrated 40 years of being married. I say celebrated when I should say the anniversary trip we would have taken at the end of May (over our anniversary weekend) was thwarted by church commitments planned […]

Perfect is the new awesome, is the new great, is the new super. We say “Perfect” when we’re trying really hard to be nice or enthusiastic or just plain don’t know what else to say. Even if it isn’t really perfect. It can be “filler.” It’s what the dentist says after she’s asked you for the fifth time to please open your mouth just a teeny bit wider as she drills you for a new crown. I’m not complaining; I use it myself. But I have noticed it is becoming a very typical response from a customer service person in a […]

This year as we celebrate Thanksgiving (our Canadian friends/readers have already paused on October 10), I will cherish two special ears of sacred blue corn that were given out at a recent worship service at my church. In this case, the corn has fascinating links to a past all of us should hold dear. Sometimes we talk about doing whatever we can to guard and protect the earth for the sake of our children and grandchildren, but Native Americans count seven generations forward on this topic. Nancy Sorrells, a journalist, historian, and organizer from nearby Augusta County, Virginia, spoke at […]

Earlier this year, my husband had rotator cuff surgery on his shoulder, and we were both newly amazed and impressed with the intricate workings of the human body. The well-known verses in Psalm 139 puts it: “You made me in an amazing and wonderful way. . . . You saw my bones being formed as I took shape in my mother’s body. When I was put together there, you saw my body as it was formed.” That’s amazing synchronization of bones, muscles, tendons, nerves, and a brain that lets you tell the fingers, okay, I’m going to ball you up in a […]

“In another year, don’t bring it back to me. Get yourself a new one.” Mike, my computer repair guy, was totally serious. He wasn’t being rude or discouraging my business. He just knows how badly I hate to get new computers, so this is the second time I’ve dragged it in for a clean-up; it has been stalling out and wasting my time, big time, for nigh on to two years, I’d wager. The old one was like a piece of paper that had scratches and writing all over it. The one he installed was like a clean piece of […]

It’s no secret that some people enjoy babies and small children more than others. Sometimes it is a matter of someone (mostly male, but not always) who has grown to adulthood without the opportunity to be around very many little ones, so they don’t know how to truly engage with a child. Any new parent—who may be feeling just a little unsure about the whole thing—would do well to read and keep this simple list in mind. Or there are those on the opposite end, whose home and extended family may have had oodles of small kids that they were […]

Am I getting dementia? Or have I just been going through too much stress? Roxana prayed with us, and I can’t tell you how much she lifted my heart and my mind that week. There is not a 50-year-old alive who doesn’t ask the question about dementia at least once a week, or whenever we’ve forgotten where we put the cell phone or the keys, or slipped up on someone’s name, or cannot remember the minute details the spouse remembers from 25 years ago. Many of us, once we get beyond the age of 70 and up, will indeed be […]

My dog, a 40-pound mixed mutt, was standing outside our garage door barking. She doesn’t often bark unless the neighbor dog comes over to play, and sometimes that dog gets her going. The extra bonus with a mantis is that their very posture of prayer often invites me to pray, even as I work. But this was just our dog, Velvet, barking with some extra excitement. Time to go look. I was amazed. There stood a tiny praying mantis up on its hind legs, batting at my dog as if it could hear my dog barking and as if it […]

Editor’s note: Michelle Sinclair is the daughter of columnist Melodie Davis and writes occasionally for Another Way. She works in the advertising department of a major daily newspaper. She and her husband have two small sons. For some, September is a month for checking out the bevy of new TV shows rolling on air. My family is barely aware of what’s on TV, let alone what’s new. For now, it’s lovely having no background noise or commercials to worry about. Our house is loud enough! My husband and I never set out to be a TV-free household. In fact, one […]

This is an old topic, as old as the words of Jesus—one of the wisest philosophers who ever lived (and a whole lot more, but we’ll just go with this description for now). Jesus knew a great deal about human nature. Jesus told his followers and others who lived in his time two thousand years ago that to have faith in God, we must become like little children. Small children can provide wonderful reminders of what it means to have trust. We must be like little children in what we know and accept. Not childish. Jesus keenly pointed out the […]