Doughnuts!
Most (perhaps all) experts would advise aspiring writers to “just say no” to exclamation points. They are abused and overused. They make our writing appear amateur. There is seldom a good enough reason to use an exclamation point. And yet . . . I choose to believe that the story I am writing today deserves an exclamation...
Prayers
Trees are dying, fires are burning, and I’ve been praying for rain. On Monday, it rained. A good, soaking rain. I went to bed and imagined the smoke being scrubbed from the air. On Tuesday, we woke up to find that the smoke was much, much worse. “What happened,” we wondered. Hadn’t the rain done its...
Art
(photo by yours truly) I waited and prayed for children for a long time. I first knew that God had heard my prayer when, crying out to Him for an answer, any answer, I saw a brilliant orange moon rising over Lake Michigan. One year later, we brought our daughter home from the hospital and sat by her Moses basket in the light of another full...
Book of Quotations: Breath
I recently jotted down a few lines from Barbara Brown Taylor’s Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith. Describing the honeysuckle and magnolia blossoms in her Atlanta neighborhood, she writes: “All these earthly goods were medicine for what ailed me, evidence that the same God who had breathed the world into being was still breathing.”...
Summer List
Today I tried writing a Summer List and discovered that this once-favorite tradition hasn’t traveled well. I started writing Summer Lists in Chicago. At first, they were just for me, but my oldest child did contribute an item or two in recent years. A Summer List is exactly what it sounds like: a list of activities and...
Fire and Rain
For several weeks, I have thought of barbecue every time I stepped outside my door. It’s a smell that burns, and a fog that makes my eyes smart. It isn’t my neighbor’s backyard grill (though that smell is common year-round. Really. This year we grilled pizzas on Christmas Eve). It’s wildfire. When I...