By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer People often equate passion with sexual desire. However, passion is an interesting word with several shades of meaning. Merriam-Webster’s online definition reads: 1 often capitalized a : the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death b : an oratorio based
Last week, I harvested my giant sunflower and gave it to a friend who raises chickens. The flower had grown beyond the point pictured above, and the edge turned back, opening the face for the seeds to fall or be easily plucked by birds (and chickens). After
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Today is officially the first day of autumn, and I want to whet your appetite for turkey – or whatever you’ll enjoy a couple of months from now on Thanksgiving – though if I had to wrestle the guy pictured above for a drumstick,
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer “Fuel up,” “pack up,” “load up.” These were oft-repeated phrases when our family rodeoed. With “up” attached to so many words, we must have lived a glass-is-half-full kind of life. Either that, or we had a roundup mentality. When Mike said, “Load up,” our
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer I couldn’t sleep. Again. The 4 o’clock hour winked in digital red from my clock radio, so I went into the living room and opened the windows and door, welcoming the cool breath of predawn. At the door, I stilled. For there in the
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Authors are always asking themselves what-if questions. Such a habit seems contradictory in the lives of those who believe the Lord will provide their every need. As one of those believers, I’ve learned it’s highly unproductive to plague myself with questions like, “What if
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer In one of my upcoming novels, a character says, “Sometimes we don’t see the things we’ve grown accustomed to.” Such an observation works for the bad as well as the good, and I recently discovered how. This summer we revamped the front of our
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Summer is slipping away and September will be here in two weeks. So will a new six-book collection of historical Christian romances, “Thanksgiving Books & Blessings.” I’m excited to be a part of this collection and honored today to introduce you to the veteran
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer We’ve all heard the familiar saying, “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and perhaps others are credited with that pithy line on perseverance, but I’ll bet the barn
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer The Western Washington State Fair in Puyallup was laid out and maintained like a theme park. Disneyland and Six Flags, move over. Everything was bright, pristine, and welcoming as we pulled our rig in next to the arena and set up camp for the
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer At first, you might not notice much difference between these two unretouched photographs other than one has no direct sunlight and one does. I took these two images about an hour apart – before sunrise and after. No filters. No corrections. Just raw pictures
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer In the sport of rodeo, the game is never called on account of rain. Well, almost never. The only place I saw a performance canceled due to weather was Drummond, Montana, where standing water mirrored the bucking chutes (above). But there was no cancellation
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Last Monday I had a 2 p.m. appointment and just enough time to get there. Then the phone rang with a long-distance call. And the dog wouldn’t go back in the yard because he was freaked out by an approaching storm. How does a
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer For my family, equating the Fourth of July with rodeo is a long-standing habit. Yes, we’ve barbecued and sometimes watched fireworks, but when our kids were growing up, we never celebrated at the house. We didn’t have a house. We had a 16-wheel rig
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer The bad news is, six months from today is Christmas Eve. The good news is, six months from today is Christmas Eve. I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Remember when you were a kid and Christmas couldn’t come quickly