Feature Columnists

It's mid January. It's cold outside. Where have the animals gone? Holes in the ground are very important for the survival of much of our wildlife. This photo might make you think of a black bear because they are known to hibernate in caves and holes in the ground during winter. But there are a lot...

As Americans, we regard freedom as the highest ideal. It is what our country is founded upon; we revere it. The way we define it, though, is, I think, a narrow definition that often serves the necessities of capitalism rather than serving people. When we are enslaved to pursuing the next thing, to...

On June 27, 2009, the 13-story Lotus Riverside apartment complex in Shanghai, China, collapsed fully intact. A combination of digging for a garage, a large pile of dirt and heavy rains snapped the foundation pylons, causing the building to fall, leaving most windows and doors intact. ...

Who doesn't like a bright red cardinal on a cold, snowy day? This bird is a native North American songbird. It is a male northern cardinal. The female northern cardinal is not bright red. The seed pods hanging from the limbs look like dried up pea pods. ...

The old year is gone, now, so what do we do? Do we evaluate the good we've derived from that time, or do we lament the bad that we can't remedy? Every year we're asked to turn over a new leaf and begin again. We are asked to rewrite another chapter inside our book of life--and that's what it's all...

The other day I had a fascinating talk with a man about my age. We found we had much in common, and the conversation could have gone on for hours. The genial interlocutor was unaware of my past because it wasn't relevant to the subject matter at hand...

And now, with Christmas day, we finally start the Christmas season. The waiting and unfulfillment of Advent are over. We have 16 days to celebrate the fullness of Christmas, from Christmas Eve through the Baptism of the Lord, this year on Jan. 9. Now, I feel like I can finally say it and mean it...

I finally tackled some of my "honey-do" projects. Some I had put off for years. Those projects hung over my head like a great weight. I felt guilty for not getting them done and had no answer when they would be finished. I was frustrated. Though she would never show it, I knew my wife was...

It is a thrill to go out on a frosty morning and look for small things with frost on them. Frost will form on most plants and some mushrooms when nights are calm and temperatures fall below the freezing mark. Frost will melt away quickly when sunshine hits it or air temperatures rise above...

This columnist never has enjoyed a good sense of direction. East and west as signposts, for example, have little meaning for me. During this Christmas season, with so many vehicles seen again at shopping centers during this vaccinated era, remembering where the car is parked is always an...

Have you ever stepped back and wondered why YOU celebrate Christmas? Do you even know, or have you given the subject any thought? Frankly, I had not looked at Christmas in the context of my personal experience, what's inside me, concerning the holiday. ...

Whitetail deer are beautiful wild animals. They provide a thrill especially for children at or near Christmas time. Although it is widely reported that Rudolph and the other deer that pull Santa's sleigh are reindeer, whitetail deer are the only kind of deer to inhabit Southeast Missouri...

The song "Mary Did You Know" has become one of recent history's most popular Christmas songs. The song's author began composing the lyrics in 1984 while mulling over questions he would have asked Mary. Finally, after seven years of fine-tuning, music was written, and the first recording released....

I am always trying to learn about hope. It has always seemed to me to be this ephemeral thing I can't quite wrap my mind around, an intangible that has no solid definition. Throughout different phases of my life, I find myself coming back to the questions: What is hope, and how do I do it?...

Scouting the early morning frost Dec. 12, I found what I was looking for. It took me about an hour to find a native flower blooming in the frost. This flower is called the common blue violet. It is a North America native wildflower that blooms profusely during springtime. In Southeast Missouri, it...

Are you a follower or a leader? Do you travel, always with a pack, and feel insecure if you're left alone to make your own decisions? It doesn't matter if you're a follower or a leader because it takes both kinds. Most of us are, eventually, called upon to serve as both, depending on the time,...

In the 2021 movie "Belfast," the divisive and violent time known as the Northern Ireland Troubles is seen through the eyes of a little boy named Buddy, played splendidly by 11-year-old actor Jude Hill. Hill may be nominated for an Oscar for his powerful performance, which is a fictionalized...

A summer storm two years ago produced strong winds that uprooted two large trees. The trees fell down close together. I don't know exactly why the box turtle ended up wedged between the logs, where it apparently turned itself upside down and starved to death...

I wrote a note on the December page of my analog calendar that read, "Warning! December fills up fast." My prophetic sticky note proved true. A plethora of activities now surrounds the few events I had on the calendar. The busyness of December has prompted the idea of rewriting the Andy Williams...

Psalm 23, titled "The Lord, Shepherd and Host," (NAB) is one of my favorites. For most of my life, I really latched on to the "shepherd" role in the title and somehow, until more recently, completely overlooked the "and host" part. It is delightful to me that God would be so kind to help us relate...

A deer hunter will probably know what this is, but do you? It's called a ground blind. A ground blind can be made of nearly anything from a permanent small building with a stove to a camouflage plastic tent like the one here. Photographers, birdwatchers, deer hunters and nature lovers all can enjoy...

How was your day at work, today? Was it a good day in your estimation, or did it seem like the same old thing as yesterday? Did you sit and look at the clock, counting the hours until it was time to leave? Those are view-points most of us take, many times, whether we're taking about work or...

This writer is generally loathe to comment on the experiences of celebrities who go public with their stories of faith. In the 15 years penning this column for the Southeast Missourian, my memory is only once has an entertainer's faith postulations made it into this space...

A ray of morning sunlight glanced off a tree limb and reached toward me as I held the camera at just the right angle. Autumn is a beautiful time to embrace the woods. The colors of the leaves can give a hint to what kind of autumn tree you might be looking at. ...

Psalm 9:1 says, "I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds." This psalm gives us three essentials when it comes to giving thanks. First, giving thanks is critical. No doubt you could easily create a "not-thankful for" list. What we need...

My favorite Coldplay album "A Head Full of Dreams" ends with the song "Up&Up." It is a song of hope and imagination amidst a world that can sometimes be filled with drudgery and despair, a song about continuing even when it seems hard and all efforts could potentially come to nothing, a song about...

A frost flower is not truly frost nor is it a flower. The ribbons of ice form from sap slowly freezing as it oozes from a living plant during a period of freezing temperatures. The night of Nov. 6 was calm. A cold front brought light rain a day earlier making everything wet. Nighttime temperatures...

There's nothing quite like a large construction dumpster to focus the mind. We've been talking about getting rid of our clutter for some time, and last month, my wife acted on it by ordering the big green monstrosity to be placed into our driveway. In nearly 40 years of marriage, we've accumulated...

Of what does your life consist, besides purely, the psychical side of it? One can go deeply into the mechanics of it if he chooses, but that isn't my purpose. My goal is to think about the role we have, and do not have, in the shaping of our existence...

My Granddad served during the end of World War II. He left the Kentucky farm and his new bride to serve in the U.S. Army. The unit he was a part of was shipped to Germany as the war ended. Like so many others in the years since, he sacrificed greatly in serving the United States of America...

I have been thinking lately of the connection between comparison and coveting. To covet, Oxford Languages tells us, is to "yearn to possess or have (something)." When we compare our self, ability or life to someone else's life and come up short, so often that leads us to want what they have, which...

Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes crossed Southeast Missouri the evening and night of Oct. 24. The next morning was windy and cool with temperatures in the upper 40s. While walking on this morning, I was surprised to see a big bullfrog sitting out in the open on a pond levee...

Attendance at various governmental meetings is part of my work for this newspaper. All such gatherings begin with a pledge to the U.S. flag. Alumni of the American educational system will note every class day begins with recitation of the pledge -- a vow of national commitment which does not trace...

Are you bored with your life, need to get away, start anew, or, don't know what you want? Almost everyone has felt this way at one time or another. Thinking those thoughts isn't a bad thing, but what we do with them can be. We can act irrationally and make mistakes that may impact our world for...