They showed a map on TV the other night that over her lifetime, U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky has nearly swum the circumference of the earth. She may as well have swum to Paris for the Olympics, I thought. But I wondered if all her training had felt that way---if, with each stroke, she felt herself … Continue reading Two Good Legs
"We reflect the greater storyof our King and His bride."~ Bethany Barnard, Covenant These are the things that made me happy in July: On the first day of July: watering the garden in a sweatshirt, walking in rubber boots around the pond, making granola, sewing a dress Flying down the slippin' slide on the big … Continue reading Fireworks & Wedding Flowers
On Dangerous Hospitality One of the first chapter books I owned was a little paperback my dad bought for me, called The Watchmaker’s Daughter. It must have been a child’s adaptation of Corrie ten Boom’s story in The Hiding Place, which I wouldn’t read until I was old enough to brave it. I loved Corrie. … Continue reading Hiding Place
For Joel & NatalieA Blessing for Their House May you live like you’re young in this house that’s older than you,old as the trees,old like the bell steeple on Main Street,and the railroad that runs with the river west to the town where Dad was born. May you not erase the aging lines of this place, which … Continue reading Remember
"I felt as much complimented today as though I had been praised for writing a good book: a man I met, who had bought a comb of honey from my friend, the market man, told me he thought it as fine honey as ever he ate in his life." David Grayson, The Countryman's Year Good … Continue reading Housework & a Honey Harvest
The Story Behind True Stories from Home For every writer, there’s a day of small beginnings. Jane Austen started with a quill and inkwell in her family’s sitting room. Hemingway carried a notebook and pencil around in his pocket. For Tolkien, it was the back of a student’s Oxford exam paper where he drafted the … Continue reading Over the Pond Banks & Through the Woods
In the days that trudged between long marches and grueling battles, it’s said that George Washington would write home to Mount Vernon about the way he wished things to look there. I think he found a reprieve from the war in thinking about his home and directing how his servants should situate things, like the … Continue reading A Good Man
This may sound strange, but these days, I pray often for honeybees. Jared is a beekeeper and a businessman, so much of his success lies in the hives tucked in the corner of his property—in their brood, their comb, and the flow of their nectar in spring. When I said “yes” to dating him, I … Continue reading Bless These Hives
"Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun;Let us talk of all his wondrous love and care.Then when all of life is over and our work on earth is done,And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there." ~ James M. Black, "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder" Good … Continue reading Bluegrass, Hymns, & Bluegill Bait
The cicadas have come, like a thousand sirens in the trees. I was ten last time they emerged from the ground en masse, littering the grass and molting on every tree. I was still wearing my brothers’ basketball shorts and running around sticking the bug shells on peoples’ shirts after church. I remember how we … Continue reading Year of the Locust
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