Author: maryanncrum

                Here’s a little quiz for you: What TV show features bad scripts, worse acting, and the cheesiest sets, props and special effects imaginable … and yet has maintained a devoted (dare I say “cultish”?) fan base for 45 years?                 Hint: It boldly went “where no man has gone before.”                 If you guessed… Continue reading Why Do We Do What We Do?

                I paused in the middle of the aisle, turned to my friend, and said, “What on earth am I doing in here?” as I observed all the “organic” folks milling about me in the natural food store.                 How did I end up in a West Coasty store stocked with things like chocolate-covered goji… Continue reading Change Can Feel Scratchy

        Sometimes you have to go where you don’t want to go to get where you want to be. That may not be the easiest sentence to diagram or the most comfortable principle to accept, but I believe it’s true. And I think it lies at the very heart of Christmas. This truth has bobbed in… Continue reading Life is Full of Trade-offs

        “I don’t get it,” he says.                   “What’s not to get?” I ask.         And that’s pretty much how the conversation goes when my husband is baffled by something I think, feel, say or do. Thankfully, after nearly 35 years of marriage, we’re both okay with some unsolved mysteries.         I sometimes still try to explain myself—rather… Continue reading What’s Not to Get?

                Okay, where was a Thundershirt when I needed one?                 Where was a Thundershirt when my fraidy-cat dog, Winston, was still alive and freaking out every time a thunderstorm boomed into the area? Or every July 4th when popping fireworks turned my dog into a quivering blob of canine craziness? What in the world… Continue reading A Thundershirt Isn’t Enough These Days

        Sometimes people ask where I get ideas for this column. Whether they really want to know, or are instead subtly questioning my sanity, I answer: “Everywhere,” because that’s the truth. I can’t explain why random things brush across my consciousness, stick like Velcro, and then remind me of spiritual principles, but they do.         And because… Continue reading God Meets Us Where We Are

California, here they come. And I’ve had trouble being happy about that.         We recently said goodbye to one of our sons, his wife, our grandpup, and most of their earthly goods (except the ones we’re storing and holding as ransom), as they embarked on a grand new life adventure in California.          I’m seriously conflicted about… Continue reading Loving and Leaving

As I write this, “space junk” is hurtling toward our planet. The experts say the odds are pretty small that it’s going to hit me—one in 21 trillion. The odds that it will hit someone, somewhere, are a bit higher: one in 3200. Statistics, shmatistics—I still find it unsettling. By the time you read this,… Continue reading Something’s Coming from Heaven!

“Don’t open this unit with your face close to the door or it will melt the skin right off. Just like a blast furnace,” the guy said, with unsettling enthusiasm and something like a disturbing twinkle in his eye.                 A moment later, he added, “And a couple who had one of those over there… Continue reading Jesus Doesn’t Need Salesmen

            By the time you read this, it will be history, but as I’m writing this, the best tennis players in the world have converged in New York City for the U.S. Open and I’m in tennis-watching heaven.             My husband is flabbergasted, and perhaps slightly annoyed, by my capacity to watch so much tennis… Continue reading Hang On To Your Mojo