I played cards with his parents. I sabotaged his daughter’s wedding. I lived with his sister. He called me on the phone. We talked about wars: the one he was born into and the one he volunteered for and the ones he started. Today, I struggle for words. Today is the day Earl Nash died. Memorial Day 2024. He was my uncle. He made hard choices: bad choices, good choices. Isn’t this the story of all our lives? He did…
January, You are the beginning, the brand new one, the fresh start. You are the reminder that He makes all things new. I can feel it, the turning over, the closing of doors. There are too many metaphors. January, I’ve seen you before. Yet, even you, He makes new. You are a revolving door, allowing us to walk through, to exit as we wish. You are a pausing, when the past and future coexist. You, January, I’ve greeted loudly with…
I know you know this, but I am writing a novel. Big surprise: that’s what I”m writing about today. Once, at workshop in the West Virginia mountains, I heard Meredith Sue Willis say, that whatever your novel is, you should know it will change, and that you will change, too. She also said that novels are made out of scenes, and then words. Both are true in this case. Over the past 12 years this novel has been a short story, a…
I am in the middle of writing a novel. I’ve been writing this novel for years. It began as a family story. It turned into a short story for a college writing class. Now, I have 30,000 words and I tell people that I’m writing a novel. It’s true. I am writing a novel, but I’m also mothering three children. I’m teaching them to read and write and count and make breakfast for themselves. I’m teaching them to clean their…
A dear friend gave me a book last week. It’s Cultivate Vol. IV: Creativity Unlocked, a book created by Cageless Birds, designed to do just what it says: unlock creativity. It certainly does. (Please note that I am not getting paid to write this. I am simply sharing my life here.) The book is a kind of devotional. Most entries end with prompts that aim to help unlock creativity in those who dare to take the journey. The first prompt…
This blog was drafted in the Houston Airport, the day after the last of my childhood friends got married. I was sitting there, waiting for my flight, and I just started writing. Who knows why we write. Who knows why certain events stand out to us, why we get stuck on thoughts, but in that airport I was stuck on these relationships. In the sidebar of this very blog I have quoted Flannery O’Conner. “I write to discover what I…
Well hurricanes have been the subject of many an article lately. Today, Irma’s destruction is measured in my former home state and she has mostly moved north to leave those people be. Her affects on Florida are described in my text messages and all over my Facebook news feed. Destruction, yes, but thankfully I have not heard complete devastation from people I love. Oh, mustn’t we always remind ourselves that devastation is cyclical, and we are all in the circle….
It’s a rainy, grayish day, but it’s really more silver. The sun is coming. I am tired though I’ve had plenty of coffee. A bluegrass twang has resonated my day. Nickel Creek. Alison Krauss. Thanks to Pandora, the happy, soulful noise of banjo and fiddle just keeps coming. I stepped outside for a while with my children, felt the coolness of this cloudy August day. We chatted with a wonderful neighbor. We pet a passing cat. I don’t know if any…