Luann Tennant Coyne

Category: Family

Joy Comes With the Morning

Strong confidence young woman standing alone and open arms under the sunrise on top of the mountain. She was delighted and happy to come and see the sunrise from the top of the mountain.

When my father was dying and Mom and I were standing at his bedside in the hospital, Mom asked me to read Psalm 35 aloud to Dad. When I got to verse five, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning,” Mom repeated it, raising her voice because Dad was hard… Continue reading Joy Comes With the Morning

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

No Reason to Quit

Success transformation and Transform to succeed or improving concept and leadership in business through innovation and evolution with paper origami changed for the better.

In the family I grew up in, not having the resources to do a job was never a reason to quit; it was merely an opportunity for ingenuity. You searched for creative solutions, you got the job done, and then you could take pride in your innovativeness. One example was my father’s hat solution. One… Continue reading No Reason to Quit

Anchored Beside the River

Sometimes I get infected with the belief that I have to fix every problem that comes at me. I forget that the answer to many problems is just to accept them.  When I keep looking for a fix that isn’t there, one thing that restores me to sanity is to go outside and listen. I… Continue reading Anchored Beside the River

Embrace the Fog

Here we are at last, in a little Mississippi town on the Gulf of Mexico. We have come here to avoid the winter ice and a massive remodeling project in our home up north. And, providentially, as a place for my husband to heal after a severe back injury. Here we are on the beach,… Continue reading Embrace the Fog

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

The Gift of Hope

People think that only the elderly, living single, forgotten lives, can feel lonely and despondent.  People do not realize that the young, invisible in a crowd, can feel just as lonely, and just as miserable. When I was in sixth grade, I felt terminally different. I felt like a total misfit, a permanent ugly duckling… Continue reading The Gift of Hope

Lilac Legacy

Each of the pass-along plants in my yard comes with a story.  The most powerful story, however, comes from the lilac bush, and with it, an unsolved mystery. When my husband and I built our new home, my mother gave me a piece of the lilac growing at her retirement home on Island Lake in… Continue reading Lilac Legacy

Always a New Dawn

One thing I have learned in my life is that after every hard time, every struggle, there comes a new dawn.  The trick is to be open to it.  To say Yes to its gifts. Change can be hard. I know that my mother was anxious in the days leading up to my father’s retirement.… Continue reading Always a New Dawn