As All Great Tales Should
Here’s what happened: a turtle surfaced on the lake. She started as a turtle the size of a quarter, green and black, with the sun glinting off her back. Later, as we remember her honestly, she was actually the size of a dinner plate, with a head like a log shooting up from the water. […]
Hope for the Uprooted
I love hearing all about local history, especially in this big Southern family I find myself a part of by marriage. When you meet people who’ve been in the same place since the Revolutionary War, you just have to ask for stories, and they’ll offer them up like sweet garden pickles from the jar. You’ll […]
All the Forms it Takes
My husband arrives home with a little bag from a bookstore that he dangles in front of me like fishing bait as I drop cookie dough onto the baking sheet. I’m making chocolate chip cookies for all the children running around here. It’s a rainy day, and there’s nothing better than the smell of baking […]
What You Feel But Cannot Name
I remember today the great joy of naming for others what they experience and cannot quite put into words. Certain stories resonate deeply because they reveal us to ourselves. Writing sheds new light so we can see; writing has everything to do with snatching words like fireflies and holding them still to illuminate the dark […]
A Jewish Blessing for a Brand New Month
It’s a new month! I love the first of every month because of all the grand and glorious intentions I set in my journal. I want to set beautiful intentions for a new month that have to do with praying and soaking in God’s words. (I want to rise above the lesser intentions of eating […]
The Strangest Fascination
If you’re really going to know me, I suppose I must confess my strange fascination. I love being honest with you because what else do I have to offer? I can prove the strange fascination’s significance in my life: When I first went to therapy because of a kind of depression that left me lost […]
Thou Shalt Fry Okra (and Four Things that Happen to You in the South)
I’m writing here from North Carolina with my Southern In-Laws. I confess I am not a Southerner. I was born in Kansas into a military family and grew up mainly on the West Coast (Fort Ord, Fort Lewis) and then in Northern Virginia (which my UVA and Greystone friends remind me is not the South). […]
If You Have a Child Who Talks Too Much
First of all, I was a child who talked too much. My older sister and parents don’t laugh about these memories; they agonize over them. If you ask them about how much I talked as a child, they’ll close their eyes and step back as if they are trying to distance themselves from the terrible […]
As You Are, Where You Are
I read about the concept of being “self-possessed” today. A self-possessed person is one who remains calm, confident, and in control of her emotions no matter where she is or what is happening to her. A self-possessed person maintains clear thinking under stress and knows exactly who she is and what her role is in […]
A Book I’m Loving: Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos
I grabbed it from a Little Free Library down the road because I liked the row of rain boots on the cover. I fell in love with it on the second page when the author describes a character, Cornelia, who loves the city. She puts it like this: Image Barnes&Noble “I loved the […]