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Personal Reflection

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Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

January 2018

January 24, 2018

The Shore after the Storm

The sun rises over the ocean where I live, two miles from the Atlantic. You...

January 23, 2018

The Love Song of Pepper Smith

The day of Pepper Smith’s funeral, it was a stiff fifteen degrees—ironic weather for a...

January 22, 2018

A Hearth for Our Home

A week before Christmas my husband and I hired professionals to install a wood stove...

January 18, 2018

On Monks, Conversion, and Radio Astronomy, Part 2

On my second day at the abbey, I bounced around, trying to listen, to feel,...

January 17, 2018

Of Monks, Conversion, and Radio Astronomy, Part 1

In the middle of life, I fell in love. For my forty-ninth birthday, my wife...

January 16, 2018

Wrestling

My son has always been the smallest kid in his class, often mistaken for being...

January 15, 2018

Race Relations: A Personal History

It is Martin Luther King Day, and I muse about how my relation to African-Americans...

January 11, 2018

Reynolds Price and Me: The Tale of Two Rhodes Scholars, Part 2

I found myself returning to the work of Reynolds Price in 2011, the year he...

January 10, 2018

Reynolds Price and Me: The Tale of Two Rhodes Scholars, Part 1

Reynolds Price slithered onto the American literary scene in 1962. “Just with his body and...

January 04, 2018

“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...

January 03, 2018

Blind Epiphany

Over Thanksgiving, my sister and I spoke of transitions. We're both susceptible to periods of...

January 02, 2018

Mirrors, Monsters, and Art

Often when Aomame finishes showering and prepares to dress, she stands naked before a mirror...

December 2017

December 28, 2017

The Jealous Prayer

In the first days of my MFA program, one of the mentors—a fiction writer I...

December 27, 2017

Martha Stewart: Entertaining for Millions

Quick: before 2017 ends, I want to mark an anniversary that has somehow been missed...

December 25, 2017

The Christmas I Sat Next to a Sex Offender

Last year my husband and I celebrated our first Christmas with our infant daughter. She...

December 21, 2017

My Last Resort

I’m at the beach with my husband, wining and dining on the company dime for...

December 20, 2017

The Play’s the Thing

In a recent interview about some stories I’ve written, the interviewer asked several questions regarding...

December 19, 2017

A Theologian Reads Karl Ove Knausgaard

My reading habits, I confess, aren’t literary. I probably lack the training and the gifts...

December 18, 2017

Mystical Rose Among Thorns

Maria walks amid the thorn Kyrie eleison. Maria walks amid the thorn, Which seven years...

December 13, 2017

Lucia in the Dark

Every year after the clocks fall back, I read Lia Purpura's essay "Sugar Eggs: A...

December 12, 2017

Arts & Faith Top 25 Films on Waking Up, Part 2

There are, arguably, many ways in which we need to wake up, hence the need...

December 11, 2017

Arts & Faith Top 25 Films on Waking Up, Part 1

“My father says almost the whole world’s asleep. Everybody you know, everybody you see, everybody...

December 07, 2017

What Child Is This?

My wife is holding my hand to her stomach, gently gliding my fingers just beneath...

December 04, 2017

Advent Lights

The highways that snake down and around rural Iowa are dark. Enough that, if you...

November 2017

November 30, 2017

The Cost of Writing the Truth

I remember my mother used to go to bed for the day. The blackness of...

November 29, 2017

The Optics of Illusion

Ross told the kids to stare at the splotchy red and blue picture and wait....

November 28, 2017

What Keeps Me From You

What keeps me from you: a meeting with human resources. What keeps me from you:...

November 27, 2017

The Chopin Stitch

In a recent New York Times interview, pianist Steven Osborne discussed the strange experience of...

November 23, 2017

A Tradition Without Tryptophan

November is always an interesting time for a family of vegetarians. While my three children...

November 21, 2017

The Night I Read Flannery O’Connor’s College Journal

I am. This is not pure conceit. My tea (Irish Breakfast, decaf, as it’s nearly...