Papa Jay married Mema in the preacher’s living room. He was on leave, and they had decided to go ahead with it, so Mema ran out to buy a dress and some flowers. Papa wore his uniform. Aunt Margarete baked a pecan pie to serve afterward, and Papa still talks about how good it was. … Continue reading A Wartime Love
A Story of Christmas Present It’s that time of year when the trees go up in the church foyer, and the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes get stacked, and I stand in the green fluorescence of Dollar Tree, and everything on the shelves is plastic and off-brand, and I wonder if the kid getting my box … Continue reading Glory in a Box
It’s Sunday morning and our pastor is there early, drinking his coffee, straightening the chairs in the sanctuary, and, I think, praying over them. The heater makes the ceiling creak as Jason and Courtney hold hands to pray before he’ll lead worship in a voice that sounds like Mark Hall’s from Casting Crowns, and she’ll … Continue reading Sunday Morning
Our porch lights were on when we pulled up the drive at 1 A.M. last Tuesday morning – Joel, Trent, Janaya, and I. A strong, warm wind was in the trees, and a patch of stars blinked between clouds. (Maybe it's the way music works in me, but things always seem more vivid and alive … Continue reading Souls
I watch motherhood from the outside, surrounded by my books and garden and time to spend on them. I read Frog and Toad to the kids, but I don’t feed them, teach them, band-aid them, nurse them, shush them, spank them, birth them. I refuse to wash peanut butter off their faces, and even though … Continue reading The Moms I Know
Love stories surround me--- the real, weatherbeaten kinds. Leanna married Drew in the hottest stretch of summer 2019, their story blooming out of the years our families grew together. They've aged since the day he took her flowers on the riverfront. It isn't the age of body, but of souls that have been stormed on … Continue reading Weatherbeaten Love
For seven years, I stood on my neighbors’ porches every other Friday to hand them some pages I’d written, rolled into a rubber band and labelled: Argyle News. The neighborhood newspaper was mostly a briefing of the birthdays, holidays, and graduations in my family, sometimes headlined by a tree that had fallen across Edgewood Road … Continue reading Front Porch Ambitions
Read: 1 Corinthians 13:4 & Galatians 4:4-5 I read Wendell Berry novels to learn that life is long and work is slow. Hannah Coulter is Nathan and Hannah’s long, slow story of love. But what is a “love story,” really? Is it when people "fall" and didn't see it coming? Is it what Hallmark says … Continue reading Love as the Work of Years
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