Luann Tennant Coyne

Category: Children

Grandma Time

What does it feel like to be 70? What it feels like to be 70 is to be living in a kaleidoscope, where past memories and present experiences and glimpses into the future all come at once.

Staring at the Angels

Little Lucas Alexander, born July 19th, is our latest grandchild, and our latest joy. Watching him, I see all over again how very powerless newborns are. He cannot move his arms and legs consciously. He cannot lift his head, although every day he gets a little closer to that goal. He cannot even turn over.… Continue reading Staring at the Angels

Try and try and you will get it, Grandma!

Six-year-old Hanah is back with her family now and me, I want to be more like her. I want to see the wonder in ordinary things. I want to realize how lucky I am, to have all the good things that I’ve never noticed before.

The Ocean Springs Mardi Gras Parade

The parade was to come right by our rented cottage, so my husband Frank and I attended… and stepped into another world. Being near the end of the parade route, we spent an hour waiting, walking up and down the street, being baptized by the last of the rain, enjoying the pre-parade festivities.  Families and… Continue reading The Ocean Springs Mardi Gras Parade

God’s Refrigerator

One of the most difficult spiritual lessons I’ve ever had to learn is that God loves me unconditionally, no matter what I do or don’t do. It is so much easier for me to think that I can at least partially earn God’s love and approval through my good works.  After all, my thinking goes,… Continue reading God’s Refrigerator

“Changing Direction”: The Art of Positive Distraction 

When I was sick with Covid, doing pretty much nothing but aching, resting, and sleeping more than I’ve slept in years, I got a call out of the blue from a young mother I had met months before. She needed to talk. She told me that the call helped her, but I know it really… Continue reading “Changing Direction”: The Art of Positive Distraction 

Farewell to Aunt Dorothy

Defocused sunset sky and ocean nature background with blurred panning motion.

Earlier this month, Frank and I were in Marlborough, MA to attend the funeral of my husband’s aunt, Dorothy Francis. Last time Frank and I were in Marlborough, we were caring for our baby granddaughter Hanah while her mother Elizabeth was working on the East Coast. It was 2017, and Frank and Liz and I… Continue reading Farewell to Aunt Dorothy

A Day for Gratitude

Begonia with red flowers, isolated on white.

In 1961, in a small town in rural Michigan, a first-grade teacher helped her students fill paper cups with dirt and plant a begonia seed in each cup. I was in that class. We set our paper cups on the sun-drenched windowsill of our classroom and, in between learning East from West and North from… Continue reading A Day for Gratitude

The Christmas Spirit

I used to measure my Christmas seasons by how much I could “get the Christmas spirit,” that is, feel the joy of Christmas.  I would feel cheated and mildly anxious if that “Christmas spirit” and “Christmas happiness” didn’t show up on time and in the appropriate quantities. I have learned better, by now.  I have… Continue reading The Christmas Spirit

God’s Mailbox

At the top of Nine Mile Mountain on the Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA of the Rockies property in Colorado is a mailbox labelled “God’s Mailbox”. Anyone can climb the mountain and leave a letter to God there. We climbed Nine Mile Mountain last week and peeked into the mailbox.  There were several sealed letters there. … Continue reading God’s Mailbox