Stories & Blogs
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…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for February 12, 2023
** I recently had the opportunity to talk with two nonprofit Exec. Directors, one in-person in Amarillo and one by cell in Santa Fe. We three are always interested in the best, most effective way to lead an agency or direct a program. Our question as we talked was about our leadership style when: 1)…
ROY’S SUNDAY LETTER FOR FEBRUARY 5, 2023
It is now Saturday evening, and we are home from a week in Amarillo. Beth and I left FW on Monday morning 9:30 just before sleet and freezing rain shut down Dallas/Ft Worth and then moved down to Austin. We drove through sleet and frozen rain for 3.5 hours before clearer roads and weather on…
Roy’s Sunday Letter for January 29, 2023
** Beth and I will be in Amarillo this week. Beth and Tricia (her LPC partner) began The Hope & Healing Place, A Grief & Loss Center for Children and Families. The HHP board and staff are recognizing 20 years of the HHP mission and services with grieving families. 20 years doesn’t seem possible…Hope &…
The What, Why, And How Of Work, 2023
My grandfather’s faded red tractor of many a plowed field and harvested crop was his office. From here he watched rain clouds, dipped snuff, and conducted the daily business of a dry land east Texas farmer. Walls, glass, door or no door offices grew from the 1960’s onward. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford showed us…
Am I Old….Really?
We live on a block and in a neighborhood of younger individuals and families, different than our 78 and 73. We speak and wave in driveways or dog walking, as we come and go in our daily lives. I often want to ask one of the younger ones to join me on front porch or…
Searching For Stability
Turning away from the upheaval of politics, market reports, wars and societal chaos, I thought Weather might be a safe place to find stability, maybe even a little consistency. Fort Worth was in the OK 90’s until early June. Then, we went from 95 to 113 and stayed until last weeks. No rain from June…
A Blog For Tim
The decision to choose a partner is different than a consultant. I recently faced this challenge. I had published a book, a printed collection of 32 of my short stories. A writer’s web site was needed to promote the book and provide a platform for book sales. After several false starts I had the opportunity…
I Am More Than A Memory
As an elder of years, and as an Executive Director type since 1970, I have more than a few wonderful memories. Two are special, forever memories. In 1995, as ED at Family Support Services in Amarillo, my revenue budget told me I needed a new fundraiser. About 6 of us gathered in the board room…
Do You Buildup or Tear Down
When children play with wood or plastic blocks, one child may choose to use blocks to build a house, a street, or even a bridge. Another child may not like what the first child is building, showing the positive way blocks can be used, even in the play of as child The second child may…
Stretching To Just Stay Up
As an elder of 78 stretching and learning WordPress, Mailerlite, is a challenge worth facing and finding my through. Writing the 32 stories in Let Me Tell You A Story, the easy part. Writing a blog and then posting on my WordPress web site the challenge. I was taught when young that “stretching” was good…