To save a buck I got down on my hands and knees. With FaceTime rolling, I asked my uncle a series of questions: Is this one it? How do I get this thing to budge? Is it okay if I rip this? Punctuated by realizations: Oh! So that’s how it works! Gee, never would have…

Oh… I forgot that January is the most challenging month for my writing at work. 🙂 I’m getting a new story series off to a great start. And it takes a lot of my writing muscle out of me, at the end of the day. Looking forward to writing more, soon!

This story is dedicated to Mike Bosch. I was thinking about that J today. Read The ‘J’ lives on It reminded me of what I’m trying to do on earth: stay connected. Sometimes I’m clinging at best – a fragile J weathering the elements. This morning I woke up to my phone buzzing. A text…

The ‘J’ lives on. Let me tell you about the J. Every Christmas season, the J makes an appearance. I get a text from my sister Becky, with a photo such as the one above. “The famous J is up,” my sister Becky reported this year. The J is like a hook – a swoop…

For months he remained a mystery. B LOVIN That’s the license plate on his blue Ford truck. Though his truck is parked kitty corner from my house, we had yet to make a sighting. Until one day about three months ago: we were driving along, not far from my house, when we came up on…

I have a happy place in the world and it’s called ALDI. There shoppers are encouraged to “shop differentli”. I’ve never felt so welcome in a grocery store. For one who thinks, feels and lives differentli, the aspiration is reassuring. And for a grocery chain that prides itself on efficiency, simplicity and differentli, there are…

Tears of joy. That is an interesting phrase, isn’t it? They come unexpectedly. Could you ever work yourself into tears of joy? I was sitting in the bleachers when I watched her step up to the block and beep! The swimmers dove into the water. It was just the 50-yard freestyle. The shortest race. About…

The other day I got a very curious email. The subject line read: Are you the Johanna Fenton who wrote ‘Building tsunami-resilient communities in the United States?’ Why no, I’m not. But why do you ask? It’s gratifying to know that among the three Johanna Fentons in the world, ONE is tackling the issue of…

Keeping a blog titled Blip of Cheer is both audacious and understated. The title promises cheer, and that I have had in abundance since the time I was little. I guess it’s how God wired me. Once, my grandma used to tell me, I was walking alongside her on the sidewalk of our small town…

I’m rather proud that I own a decent printer. It’s a Brother printer, and I’m hopeful that’s someone’s last name. Because not once have I felt a kinship with my printer. Until the other day when Brother Printer was sleeping. He was sleeping oh so soundly. I very much wished for him to wake up…