Visit Many Good Books

This piece was written for the September issue of the Lee Creek Baptist Church newsletter, Grace & Peace. If you were to take a look at my living room end table, you’d find a stack of books with coupons and slips of paper tucked in them halfway through. This is because I have an old … Continue reading Visit Many Good Books

A Long Line of Quiet Women

Sometimes, usually when I’m in the kitchen, I find myself thinking about my great-grandma Minerva, Papa Jay’s mom, who had a tight, little face, wore her black hair in a bun, and made him biscuits and gravy from scratch every morning. Papa is getting to an age when he can’t remember things well or often, … Continue reading A Long Line of Quiet Women

On Goldenrod & Body Image

Dear Maggie,* Once when I was a teenager, I went to a big concert by a Christian band-–the kind of concert where you feel the drums beat under your ribcage. The event was themed around one of the band’s new songs, which dealt with the worth of a young woman who doesn’t see herself as … Continue reading On Goldenrod & Body Image

To a Girl Engaged

Dear Maggie,* Last May, Jared and I found ourselves in that funny place of not-yet-being-engaged but knowing we would be pretty soon, if know what I mean. It’s a gentle transition you don’t necessarily talk about, but that’s written all over a girl’s face and obvious in the things she starts buying: dishes, for example.  … Continue reading To a Girl Engaged