I have a new article in the Murfreesboro Pulse that tells about my experience working with incarcerated women through Doors of Hope. More importantly, the women I was working with have their collective poem, "We Come From the Down Home Blues" published. I know they're proud of it, and I'm so proud of them! Read the article and poem in Inmates Write of Hard Times and Hope … [Read more...]
What’s All This Praying and Politicking for the Mountains About, Anyway?
January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I often use social media to encourage my friends to pray for the mountains, or to contact their legislators to protect the mountains. Those posts don't always get a lot of comments, but sometimes someone will ask me in person, "WHAT are you talking about?" So here's a bit of background information, and a great music video that helps explain. Living on a very flat piece of middle Tennessee, I'd never heard of a mining process called mountaintop removal (MTR) until I started attending writing … [Read more...]
A Child’s Poem Inspires My Prayer for the Mountains
December 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Recently in a used book store, I came across a small volume entitled Chrysalis by Harry Behn. Although the book had a worn and yellowed jacket, its subject matter – children and poetry – and a quick thumb-through convinced me to purchase it to read for myself and share with a friend. It has a number of delightful stories and insights, but one particularly stuck with me. Behn tells of working with a group of children in which one little boy shares this poem: Did you think about the … [Read more...]
Nothing Trickier, Nothing More Eloquent: Dani Shapiro Questions Personal Faith in Devotion
March 16, 2010 By 2 Comments
“Aren't we all just waiting for bad news?” advice columnist Carolyn Hax wrote in 2009. She was responding to a reader who had asked for advice about waiting for a loved one’s medical test results. Her question – right there in the morning paper beside the daily TV schedule and across from Arlo and Janis and the Peanuts gang– struck me as profound. I clipped the column and have a poem in the works using that quote. I know a few folks - like my dear Mama - who are most definitely not waiting on … [Read more...]
The Lesson January Taught Me
February 3, 2010 By 3 Comments
The month of January is finally, blissfully gone, although, like an inconsiderate house guest, she has left messy reminders here in middle Tennessee. Snow still covers our yard; a little slush clings here and there on the more shaded roads; we are still not quite in normal routine (with schools finally going back 2 hours late today); and we are dreading the utility bill when it arrives in another week or so. … [Read more...]
