Bethesda Workshops

If you’re a regular reader of my monthly blogs, you may remember that August was my Kilimanjaro month – the attempt to fulfill my years’-long dream of climbing the highest

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro next month may be the hardest thing I’ve ever done physically (well, except for natural childbirth – twice). Although it’s not a technical climb, meaning it doesn’t

Hiking became for me a key mental health practice a few years ago, and it’s now an integral part of my life. One of the things I love about hiking

The dark colored spots on the entry rug caught my eye when I opened the back door. I first wondered if Kevin, my constant canine companion, had gotten into a

For weeks I’ve been in a battle with nature, and a part of me is ashamed to report that I’ve won. When I moved in the fall I was delighted

When the question is about a preference between mountains or the ocean, mountains are my immediate choice every time. I loved the Smoky Mountains when I first saw them as

The missing item wasn’t important – nothing critical or sentimental, just a simple household tool that I found useful. The important thing about it was that it was lost, and

The project that had consumed most of a full week had been arduous, but not unpleasant, which was a pleasant surprise. I had hoped that cleaning out my office for

The question has become a joke around Bethesda Workshops: “You mean THE MARNIE FERREE is going to be there?” I always find it ridiculous that I – the person who

The wife in the coupleship who serve as Bethesda Workshops’ alumni directors, Shane Oakley, is an avid birdwatcher. She has the apps and binoculars, a great backyard full of birds,

Note: This blog was originally published a few years ago, yet my thoughts have returned to it often recently. I’m recycling it for this January offering in hopes it also

The call came on a Thursday afternoon in late May while I was teaching a clinical training: a nurse reporting the results from a screening test done a couple of

Be assured that Facebook has some great postings that aren’t tied to what you just searched on Google. One of these is a creative, beautifully written, and thought-provoking page called

Twenty-five years is a long time. The year 1997 was marked by the deaths of Mother Teresa in India and of Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash

Sometimes an ordinary happenstance takes on significant meaning. I regularly experience this when I’m hiking, as I see a hawk, a deer, a beautiful tree, or a cloud formation and

Being a GrandMarnie is one of the greatest joys of my life. I’d like to think that time spent together is fun to my grandkids and helpful to their parents,

As part of a backyard improvement project, I hired a couple of guys to cut back some tall bushes, almost trees, that were overgrown and hanging out into the yard.

Although it’s not yet summer in the meteorological sense, oppressive heat has settled into Middle Tennessee. I’ve been known to light a fire even when I must open the patio

For over two years MamaGod has consoled and delighted me with an unusual gift. It’s a regular happenstance I first experienced in early 2020, when something caught my eye as

Life is full of ups and downs. Sometimes it feels like a rollercoaster, except you don’t realize the huge jerking turns are coming, much less the stomach-dropping plunge. Yet this

A small park next to the library in my neighborhood has a statue that I’ve idly noticed for years. “The Readers” by artist Russell Faxon is a life size bronze

When I moved out of the house I had occupied for almost 30 years, it was only the second time in my life I had lived alone. (The first was

Where do I begin to tell this story, this rest of the story? Since March, I have only shared one blog, on May 4th on my 65th birthday, and this

Today, May 4th, is my 65th birthday, and I’m feeling an internal pressure to share something profound. Instead, I’ll go for something real, which likely is the most insightful truth