Sorry Spokane

June 19, 2017

Father’s Day was founded in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd, who was born in Arkansas. The first celebration was in the Spokane YMCA on June 19, 1910. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there. There you have it. […]

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He is Always in the Chair

June 13, 2017

Last Thursday night Mary and I were the primary caregivers to six young kids. Three had a genetic connection to us, the other three were a part of our daughter-in-law’s family. The assignment was designed to facilitate an adult evening around a Rehearsal Dinner. The park, pizza and lots of outdoor play was our strategy. […]

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More… So Much More

June 2, 2017

I’m sixty-two years old, and over the course of my life I’ve done two stupid and regrettable things. Not heinous, but wrong. What’s amazing about reflecting on this subject is that I did some stupid and regrettable things yesterday. Unfortunately, I keep getting in the way of my heartfelt desire to live in the full […]

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Strangers With Scissors – Part 2

May 30, 2017

A week ago I shared a story about our 2-year-old grandson, Abe, and his adventures in a barber chair. http://fridayfragments.com/dan-wolgemuth/strangers-with-scissors/ I called the reflection, “Strangers with Scissors.” Since the moment my fingers stopped typing the story, I’ve continued to face into the powerful realities of this metaphor. In some profound way, the story continues to […]

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Strangers With Scissors

May 19, 2017
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Haircuts can be traumatic, but especially when it’s your first in a barber shop. That’s precisely what our two-year-old grandson, Abe, was facing. His flowing blond locks may have been adorable, but they were increasingly impractical. Alli, our daughter, met Mary at the selected shop and the process began. When it was Abe’s turn on […]

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Soft Clay

May 5, 2017

Words are the soft clay that get formed into either useful or destructive purposes. I know this. I hear this. I am this. Ten years ago, while visiting our Youth For Christ chapter in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a young woman walked up to a cold metal microphone and announced to the world that as a […]

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Finding Our Way to YES

April 28, 2017

Have you noticed that parents with young children don’t spend a great deal of time teaching their toddlers to say NO? No comes naturally, and not just for two-year-olds. While parents are shaping the words Momma and Daddy, children are fluently expressing the thoughts on their minds. NO! Our earliest vocabulary is formed from a […]

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Juni

April 21, 2017
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It had been nearly two months since I had held our granddaughter. Alli and Chris had flown to the Dominican Republic when she was two months old, and now, nearly the same length of time later, she was back in my hands. In those two months she had added a few more rolls, but then, […]

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Every scar a story… every stitch a tale

April 17, 2017

From an uninvited and imprecise scar above my lip, the result of an early childhood encounter with a wing nut, to a meticulously positioned and expertly executed incision to reattach my left hamstring within the last year… every scar pulls back the curtain on a drama. Wounds. Healing. Scars. It was in July of 2012 […]

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Making Cents of Sparrows

April 7, 2017

Ah, the beautiful Flicker. A bird of size, color, elegance and stature. A bird that frequents the feeders on the deck outside our kitchen window. Like an extra guest at the breakfast table. Like an artist displaying some of their finest work. Yet the Flicker isn’t our only feeder patron. In fact, many birds come […]

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