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Personal Reflection

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September 2015

September 30, 2015

Beauty Will Save the Seventh Grade

By Callie R. Feyen The school administrator wants to know when my students will experience...

September 08, 2015

Blood and Silver

By Caroline Langston I stood in the security line at the Louis Armstrong International Airport...

August 2015

August 27, 2015

Checked Baggage

It’s evening and I’m about to meet my older sister in baggage claim. Trained by...

August 26, 2015

A Requiem for Rejects

By Chad Thomas Johnston He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows,...

August 24, 2015

Where’s the Guilt?

I’ve had the experience of dealing with renters from time to time, though more in...

August 18, 2015

In Defense of Air Conditioning

The summer after my freshman year in college, I made the mistake of signing a...

August 17, 2015

The Boy Who Lived Large

Friday we took the kids and hit the road for Aiken, South Carolina. We were...

August 10, 2015

What Is the Future?

It’s the end of summer in the academic South, and I’m working on syllabi for...

August 04, 2015

Breaking Bad’s Walter White is My Shining Star

When I first met Walter White, I was in pretty bad shape. Incapacitated by my...

July 2015

July 29, 2015

Bullets in My House

By Paul Luikart Last Wednesday I settled down on the couch to do something I’d...

July 27, 2015

The Mystery and Terror of Retirement

The day after I let my wife know that we had enough money to pay...

July 22, 2015

A Boy, a Wren, and the Kingdom

The little boy moves amongst his creation in the sand: a montage drawn with a...

July 21, 2015

A Bug Night of the Soul

It was a night of tumors, broken relationships, lost jobs, and loneliness. A night of...

July 13, 2015

Airbnb and the Art of Hospitality

As I write this, my husband and I are on our twentieth day away from...

July 10, 2015

My Evolving Identity

I've just read a thirty-page article called "Whitman Music: The Problem of Adaptation." A...

July 07, 2015

Morning Prayer and The New York Times

Summer morning routine: a cup of Awake tea, the Opinion page of The New York...

July 06, 2015

The Bearable Weightiness of Being

By Amy Peterson I was restless this spring, edging manic. I think my kids noticed....

June 2015

June 25, 2015

Smoke Break

After I’ve peeled the plastic protective layer off the nicotine patch and am holding the...

June 19, 2015

Is the Gospel Good News or Bad?

Continuing a little bit what I started with my essay “What Is a Christian?,” I’ve...

June 05, 2015

Hello, Insomnia, My Old Friend

It may have started with the antique grandfather clock in my childhood living room. The...

April 2015

April 23, 2015

Fever

By Dyana Herron When well, it’s easy to forget how utterly miserable it feels to...

April 20, 2015

My Mother, My Daughter, Myself

My daughter Anna Maria was born on Orthodox Easter Sunday—Pascha—six years ago. That year, the...

April 15, 2015

Writing This Post Was on My Bucket List

I’ve never left North America, seen the Statue of Liberty, or dipped a toe in...

March 2015

March 18, 2015

Soft Hearts and Thin Skin

Recently I found myself engaged in another maddening conversation with my four-year old daughter. We...

March 16, 2015

Grace and the Incomplete Flush

Almost two years ago my husband and I bought a condo in a cool old...

March 11, 2015

“A Pair of Silk Stockings” and Other Frivolous Pleasures of Mothers

After a harrowing weekend of yelling at my children, I decided I needed to take...

February 2015

February 12, 2015

The Collision

All I saw of the deer at first was the eye: domed, amber and pellucid,...

January 2015

January 15, 2015

Breaking Up with My Job

Last week, I left the job where I have worked for the past seven-and-three-quarter years....

January 14, 2015

Hitch Your Wagon to a Want Ad

The year has turned, and I have yet another chapter in the annals of things...