Stories & Blogs
Roy’s Sunday Letter for April 6, 2025
THE SLOW AND THE BLUR OF CHANGE In the mid-1980’s, I decided to sign-up for a Sierra Club hiking trip in the Colorado mountains. Beginning at base camp in Creed, eight of us hiked Colorado mountains and over the Continental Divide. On day three, I sat in a mountain meadow, with Elk nearby, watching river…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for March 30, 2023
ABOUT TREES “Who plants a tree plants hope” Lucy Larcom “A true meaning of life is planting trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” Nelson Henderson Why write a Sunday Letter about trees? When Beth and I returned to Fort Worth, we experienced the joy of trees of all types, sizes, and…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for March 23, 2025
If you want to hear a bird sing, don’t buy a cage…..Plant a tree A Personal Share: An early Melanoma growth was identified and removed by our Dermatology surgeon. The infection from the surgery moved to my left eye, which became at first swollen, then 90% closed. On a return clinic visit, I was told…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for March 16, 2025
In the midst of perceived darkness, I hold high my candle, saying look, see the path, witness the Hope. Yes, these are challenging days. I am finding, as may we all, my sense of the up and downs of daily life stretched and bent into new shapes by the streaming of the faces, voices, and…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for March 9, 2025
The CEO of Starbucks said he wants Starbucks to be everyone’s “third place,” after home and work. Come with friends, visit, perhaps purchase food and drink, but come and be a part of our place. In a similar way, I would like the Sunday Letter to be an ongoing source of encouragement, support, always with…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for March 2, 2025
FINDING MY PURPOSE IN WRITING THE SUNDAY LETTER 2025 The past weeks have been chaotic, upsetting, and stressful for me, for many of us, perhaps for you too. I stared into a blank screen wondering what I could write about, what would I write about, as well as should I even write or not. After…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for February 23, 2025
NOTES FROM FULL POCKETS I may not be alone in making notes on daily life or maybe even a random thought. In this Sunday Letter I am emptying my pockets of crumbled papers and notes as each might become lost. One topic in our Tuesday Meditation group was Balance, in ways consistent with in and…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for February 16, 2025
A Writing On Pets I am writing a Sunday Letter about the benefit of having a pet, fully understanding not every one’s life is matched to care for a pet or may have a medical situation that prohibits a pet. This Sunday Letter will hopefully be welcomed and enjoyed by readers blessed by our pets,…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for February 9, 2025
A LENTEN SEASON WRITING I attend a writer’s table hosted by Broadway Baptist. We writers were invited to draft a short piece for the individual Sundays of Lent 2025. As a Southern Baptist youth, I am not familiar with, nor practiced the historic rituals of the Lenten Season. For this Sunday Letter readers who also…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for February 2, 2025
BEING A SENIOR IN 2025 AMERICA I recently completed a story of seniors having lunch at separate tables at Mary’s Grill. Tables were needed to serve waiting families, friends, and office workers. The seniors order lunch Specials and leave small, if any tips. Since Mary’s is a friendly place, for several seniors it is not…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for May 31, 2026
Meeting Beth & Turning Calendar to 82 Remembering the last Sunday in May, 1977. My life was blessed by meeting Beth at St. Francis Presbyterian, a Ft. Worth house church. Our life together began that Sunday and has continued for 49 years, through 4 cities, 5 dogs, and 5 homes. From our commitment to learn…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for May 24, 2026
The Songs & Artists of Youth & Senior Years Music, both the sounds and the lyrics, were woven into my youth, working years, and now elder years. Today’s Sunday’s writing will present five of my forever songs. Most Sunday Letter readers were too young, or not even born, in 1966 when Joan Baez came out…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for May 17, 2026
Creating and Sustaining Community This week’s Sunday Letter has been inspired by Beth’s Delta Zeta Sorority’s magazine “The Lamp.” The current issue focuses on creating and sustaining sisterhood communities. Some readers of the Sunday Letter may participate in a local church, civic, or neighborhood association. Other readers may yet to have that experience or opportunity….
Roy’s Sunday Letter for May 10, 2026
MOTHER’S DAY 2026 Writing about mother’s is an opportunity as well as a challenge… Readers of the Sunday Letter may have experienced birth mothers, stepmothers, mothers-in-law or other family members who provided the role of mothers as best possible. Through our service at the Hope & Healing Place in Amarillo, we also know of mothers’…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for May 3, 2026
All About Goodness First Goodness: I had been dreading the clinic appointment with the Cardiologist. I had completed 3 recent heart tests and would hear test results and recommended next treatment…perhaps a Pacemaker or new medication. Instead, our MD explained my heart had a minor flow issue but were not health threatening. “See you in…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for April 26, 2026
About HOPE….How To Keep….Offer HOPE To Others Lately, as I have talked and listened to friends and family, I heard and felt their general despair. This despair seems to be from reports on the news, decisions being made by the unqualified, random acts of violence and harm to the innocent. I also heard and felt…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for April 19, 2026
Benefits of Letting the Old Man or Woman In Toby Keith wrote and recorded Don’t Let the Old Man In during his last months of treatment and eventual death from stomach cancer. There is a popular site offering T-shirts, hats, and bags with this message. I understand the resistance and push back of letting the…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for April 12, 2026
Paying Attention And Accepting My Limitations Beth, Peter, and I gather twice monthly to share writings and journals. We three also share of our individual lives. Beth and Peter encouraged me to allow a recent individual writing as the content of a Sunday Letter and thus I have done so this week. This Sunday Letter…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for April 5, 2026
This Easter weekend Beth & I walked our neighborhood block of 16 homes. Beth had prepared a gift bag for each neighbor with Zucchini bread, a card with her original art on the front and contact information. Both Jesus and Mr. Rogers spoke about neighbors. By knocking on 16 doors, we extended the hand of…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for March 29, 2026
Neighbors and Neighborhoods 2026 I am writing this week about the ways both neighbors and neighborhoods have changed, never to return to the days of images and memories of our experiences often reflected in a TV series or movie. Beth and I live on a traditional block of 16 homes. In my youth I grew-up…