was my powerful takeaway last week from attending the three-day Faith & Writing Festival at Calvin College. Imagine attending sixteen one-hour sessions, plus two chapels, with speakers whose intentions were to explore the intersection of faith and writing. Consider it an immersion camp on a rolling green campus where newbies quickly learn to shed dress …
Category: memoir
What are you willing to suffer for? Part 3 – Final Answer
As a response to Part I and Part 2 of this series about suffering, I was comforted yesterday to see the "final answer" to our earthly suffering in the form of our Prayer of Confession written in our church bulletin: Holy God, so many times you have approached us, and we have turned away, You …
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What are you willing to suffer for? Part 2
I asked this question last time based on reading Daniel Taylor’s words that he could tell what our passion was by how we answered this question. Passion is a concept that I’ve discussed often with one of my sisters since we’ve retired. In our working years, we both knew what our passion was. Teaching. We …
What are you willing to suffer for?
A scintillating question. When I read this, I really had to think. I’m gearing up to attend the Calvin College Faith & Writing Festival in April, and I like to read some of the authors ahead of time. Thanks to my Kindle, I’ve downloaded a dozen samples, and I’m getting more revved up to go …
A Week of Muffins and Rain
Before I flew west a few weeks ago to teen sit my granddaughter, I set healthy goals: cut carbs, lose two pounds, climb stairs five times an hour, and walk an hour a day in their hilly green neighborhood during fifty-degree weather. I’d been unsuccessful at home with the above activities and thought, surely, with …
My work is my retirement.
“My work is my retirement, “ I said recently in a conversation with younger people about their jobs. “And,” I added, “I’m very busy.” They laughed. I’d never thought about my retirement as “my work” before. But now that I’d said it, I realized it’s true. And, unlike some who dread retirement or complain about …
Chronic Itching: Hope on the Horizon
Readers of this blog know that I have lived with chronic itching for over a year. Some moments are really yuk, but I continually remind myself to be thankful to God for the good days, for the simple fact that I'm able to walk, talk, see, hear, and eat. And write. And take classes. And …
Grab…Sermons, this Time
Grab. Grab. And grab some more. Last time I talked about the “grab” of first sentences in short stories. Today, it’s about the “grab” in first sentences of sermons. I’m saving a collection of both for when I get to “the home” someday. Following my mother’s example, I want a collection of reading material ready. …
Grab. Grab. Grab. How grabby are your first sentences?
“The convent was gone, burned to the ground in a kitchen fire years ago.”1 Would you like to read a short story that begins with this sentence? Writing courses and journals stress the importance of first sentences. They have to have “grab." They have to make the reader want to read on. Every Sunday, I …
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What will your kids just throw out?
“I’ve put stickers behind everything valuable in my house because I don’t want my kids to throw them out when I die,” a friend said at dinner. Another chimed in, “Mine will too. They’ll get a dumpster and have a party.” A third said, "I've already given my kids everything I want them to keep." …
Write Along with Me 