"And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. " ~ 1 John 1:4 A blessedly cool breeze on my run The clink and hum of the coffee shop on a Monday morning Little neighbor girls playing outside, yelling about mermaids and lollipops Taking tomatoes to Mrs. Kathy next door, then … Continue reading Thunder & August Rain
This article was written for and published on The Christian Manifesto blog. “What do you want to do?” people wanted to know as soon as I finished high school. It was a problem, because I was already doing what I wanted to do. I was writing. I was teaching in my local church. I was using my … Continue reading Quiet, Little, & Long
Here is something I didn't expect when I began coaching writers--- I never thought I'd travel so far. It's a cliche to say that reading lets you travel the world, but when you rally a group of writers around a table, you're really in for an expedition. Writers write stories, and stories need people inside … Continue reading Circumnavigators
I was planting potatoes one day in early spring when what looked like two B-25 Mitchell bombers rumbled over the trees. I pulled my hands out of the dirt to watch history fly by and remembered there was an air show in St. Louis that weekend. I also remembered reading about the war gardens – … Continue reading Victory Garden
"The best rooms were on the left-hand side... for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit Things that made me happy in July: Tim's Fourth of July party, and how he is the Gandalf … Continue reading Sunflowers, Potatoes, & Cherry Tomatoes
May you wake to the sun that wakes the bees in their boxes and by which you can see your work and spot the queen laying her eggs in golden wombs of light. May you hear the hum of all twenty-nine colonies and may it harmonize with the song of the robins and the breeze … Continue reading For the Beekeeper
One Sunday morning last summer, I came around the corner to the coffee pot to find Sammy and Mr. Bill looking befuddled. When Sam saw me, she said the words squash bugs, and at once, I understood. Any gardener in July would. “My zucchini plants were beautiful,” she said, “and just like that--- gone.” “I … Continue reading The Mortification of Squash Bugs
The pond shrinks this time of year, when at high noon, the sun brings all the water scraping away from the muddy banks and leaves them to crack under the sun. Papa Jay uses the drought season to find the holes where the pond leaks, and he has done so for many years. A leak … Continue reading But the Sea is Not Full
"And I think to myself, What a wonderful world." ~ Louis Armstrong Things that made me happy in June.... Reading Anne of Green Gables to Elsie in the hammock Memorial Day cornhole, Spikeball, and Frisbee Late phone call in the hammock and a bright moon in the branches A buttoned skirt and white hair ribbon … Continue reading Roadtrips & Ragtime
“Today is the longest day of the year,” Mom would say one evening late in June, then shoo us out the back door to drink up every last drop of light, because, she said, the evenings would only be getting shorter from now till December. So I’d lie over the swing after dinner, brushing my … Continue reading The Longest Day of Light
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