Cast the Net Far and Wide

 A TOUCH OF NEW… I had lost weight.  But it didn’t show, especially at the bank where I worked, because I was still wearing the same old pleated skirts and sweaters as before. I was twenty-four. Browsing through all the city dress shops in search of some new clothes, I happened to walk into a store, new to me, called “The Tall Shop” just to see what it was like. After all, I had always been the tallest one in every class photo.  I saw two dresses which I loved at a good price on their sale rack, but when I held them up, the street-length dresses flowed down to the floor and out to the side!                Well, THAT won’t work , I thought, feeling odd to be the short one. But along came a sales lady who persuaded me to try them on.  As the lovely sky blue linen dress with a matching sleeveless top accented by white piping, so fashionable and unique at that time; and the softly-tucked beige shirtwaist with a full circle skirt each drooped as morosely as a flag on a rainy Novem

                                                                         A SHELF WITH A MISSION…               Why am I continually surprised that God, Who is outside time, Who made the heavens, the earth, the oceans and everything in them; would love us enough to bend down, like an adult helping a four-year-old tie his or her shoelaces, and shepherd us through our difficulties – operating efficiently and oh so patiently in OUR time?               I had a mess.  I mean my charming new dinette, set for tea with guests, was covered with undone projects:  that package for my granddaughter not yet mailed; letters and bills as yet unfiled or answered; the manual for my new sewing machine which I needed help with to set up – well, you get the idea.  Besides that I had two bulging, unsightly boxes of violin and guitar music near the entrance to the living room of my small one-bedroom apartment.               Checking my mail downstairs, I happened to see a moving-out sale notice on the