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Select a Category A. G. Harmon Alissa Wilkinson Allison Backous Art Authors Brad Fruhauff Bradford Winters Bryan Bliss Caroline Langston Chad Thomas Johnston Chris Hoke Christiana N. Peterson Culture D.G. Myers D.L. Mayfield Daniel Bowman Jr. David Griffith Elizabeth Duffy Faith Film Greg Wolfe Guest Contributor Interview Jan Vallone Jeffrey Overstreet Jessica Eddings-Roeser Jessica Mesman Griffith Kelly Foster Lindsey Crittenden Morgan Meis music Natalie Vestin Nick Olson Peggy Rosenthal Personal Reflection Poetry Friday Reflection Relationships Review Richard Chess Richard Cole Sara Zarr Shannon Huffman Polson Sonya Bilocerkowycz Tania Runyan Tony Woodlief Topical Categories Uncategorized Vic Sizemore Writing

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December 2014

December 05, 2014

A Cup of Kindness

I didn’t think I’d make it through that Tuesday. There I was, sitting in my...

November 2014

November 28, 2014

Elsa Blue and Frozen Power

For Chad Thomas Johnston Along with Kermit green, Barbie pink and—Lord have mercy—SpongeBob yellow, we...

November 25, 2014

A Tradition without Tryptophan

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

November 24, 2014

The Benevolent Season

“Good Letters” is pleased today to welcome D.L. Mayfield to our team of bloggers. “That...

November 21, 2014

The Subtle Traitor

I’m about to describe a character. He doesn’t exist everywhere, nor is he a threat...

November 19, 2014

Trouble Called Again Last Night

Trouble called again last Thursday night. The number illuminated in the landline phone's small window....

November 04, 2014

Lorenzo the Magnificent

He liked to be called El Santo (Spanish for “the Saint”). In almost anyone else...

October 2014

October 27, 2014

Riding the Waves

My sons argue over Avengers characters. The littlest insists he’s Captain America. Another claims Hawkeye....

October 23, 2014

Raising Kids in the Creation/Evolution Divide, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. At the time of our children’s young-earth themed Vacation Bible School, I...

October 22, 2014

Raising Kids in the Creation/Evolution Divide, Part 1

Two summers ago,my husband Jeremy and I decided to cancel our family’s cross-country road trip...

October 13, 2014

The Iron Cross: An Observation from the Way of Saint James, Part 1

I didn’t know Julia well. The first time I saw her, she was sitting at...

September 2014

September 26, 2014

Living My Family’s Legacy

The sins of the fathers may indeed be visited upon the children, and upon the...

September 11, 2014

How to End an Era

We're supposed to shake our heads when Daisy Buchanan, considering a summer solstice celebration on...

September 10, 2014

Songs Dead Men Sing

Guest Post by Cathy Warner In the backseat of our minivan I swig an individual...

September 04, 2014

All Unhappy Families Are Alike

In commenting on my latest essay for “Good Letters,” a man “disabled from an odd...

August 2014

August 27, 2014

Your Life Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means

On the last night of Image's Glen West Workshop earlier this month, after a moving...

August 22, 2014

How to Talk to the Dying

Since being diagnosed nearly seven years ago with a lethal cancer, I have backed my...

August 18, 2014

Rules for Celebrating: An Observation from the Way of Saint James, Part 2

Continued from last week. The Way of Saint James—El Camino de Santiago—is a pilgrimage across...

August 14, 2014

Rules for Celebrating: An Observation from the Way of Saint James, Part 1

My son graduated from college this past June. It took him seven years, due to...

June 2014

June 02, 2014

Can’t a Dad Hug His Boy?

When I sat down to work at my computer yesterday morning, I checked my email...

May 2014

May 16, 2014

Avoiding the Mirror

Guest post by Cathy Warner I have circled around this story several times, trying to...

May 13, 2014

Ruin and Possibility in David Gordon Green’s Joe

How many of our triumphs in a long and confusing life are accountable not to...

April 2014

April 01, 2014

My Dinners with Philip Levine

“Poetry makes nothing happen,” W.H. Auden famously claimed—famously and perhaps disingenuously, for if nothing else...

March 2014

March 28, 2014

Lectio Divina for a Life

My friend Cindy’s memorial service was at the Quaker Meeting she’d attended for years. The...

March 07, 2014

Her and Him: Digital Love and Divine Analogues

Sunday at the Oscars, Spike Jonze deservedly won Best Original Screenplay for Her, his dystopian...

February 2014

February 14, 2014

My Valentine

Only after I hung up the first time we spoke on the phone did it...

January 2014

January 24, 2014

Walking Toward Forgiveness

Outside our trailer park, a set of railroad tracks ran from east to west, dividing...

December 2013

December 23, 2013

Christmas Past

I once watched a boy steal all my Christmas presents. I lay on my stomach...

December 18, 2013

Sleeping Beauty, Part 2

Today’s post, an excerpt from Pieces of Someday: One Woman’s Search for Meaning in Lawyering,...

December 17, 2013

Sleeping Beauty, Part 1

Today’s post is an excerpt from Pieces of Someday: One Woman’s Search for Meaning in...