An Empty Seat at Our Table
We’ve kept an extra place at our kitchen table for years, and lately I’ve been trying to figure out the whys and hows of the uninvited guest who frequently sits there. I never notice him right away. Usually, we’re a few minutes into our meal when I first realize that he’s joined us. I see my son’s eyes grow a little bigger and a...
Book of Quotations: Why I Have Fewer Answers Now Than I Once Did
I keep a book of quotations. It looks exactly like any other journal, but it’s for a different kind of journaling. Journaling with the words of other writers, if you will. Here I scribble down quotations from all kinds of books: poetry, theology, memoir, literary theory, fiction, you name it. I write down anything I...
There is a River
(That's my brother-in-law and two of my nieces perched at the top. Not pictured: my own children who had just fallen into the water and sat, crying, in a wretched, soggy pile at the water's edge.) The name of this blog ("There is a River") comes from Psalm 46:4: "There is a river whose streams make glad the city...
Stories
It's been said that there are only half a dozen stories. The claim is that writers only recycle and reimagine the basic plotlines that have existed for hundreds of years. Obviously, six is an arbitrary number. Still, I think it's important to remember that most stories do share a kind of creative...
Sacred Work
Yesterday was all about the space shuttle in our house. The littlest boy jumped up and down when he saw the rocket poised for takeoff on television. The older boy zoomed around the house with his own plastic space shuttle. The husband kept his eyes glued to the live feed from NASA. The daughter and I watched them...
In Defense of Reading
I've had the first book in The Hunger Games trilogy sitting on my nightstand for six months. Both of my sisters told me that once I started I wouldn't be able to put it down. I believed them and so I saved it, and then I think I just forgot about it. I got used to seeing it there, unopened by my bed. Feeling a little...