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Approaching Mystery

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July 2018

July 05, 2018

Approaching Mystery: I Once Worked on a Farm in Africa by David L. Ferrell

I would like to tell you a story about that farm. I lived in Nigeria...

March 2018

March 14, 2018

Approaching Mystery: Portrait and Punctum by Joanna Penn Cooper

In Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes speaks of the photograph’s punctum, of the detail that...

March 07, 2018

What does the moon sound like?

Several years ago, I happened upon naturalist Sallie Wolf’s website detailing her "moon project." For 20 years,...

February 2018

February 21, 2018

Approaching Mystery: Who’s That Girl by Jessica Mesman Griffith

My trauma therapist warns me that my worst memories might surface later, outside of his...

February 08, 2018

Approaching Mystery: Maren Grossman on Unexpected Creatures

When I was a child I developed the curious notion that virtue could be measured...

January 2018

January 25, 2018

Approaching Mystery: The Mysteries of Girlhood by Joanna Penn Cooper

Caw-caw, caw-caw, I call out. Caw-caw, my son answers. I am standing in the kitchen...

January 20, 2018

Approaching Mystery: “Offering” by Carla Myers

My breasts are cold because they are made of cold compressed air, contained by cold,...

January 10, 2018

Approaching Mystery: Emily Terrell on Pascal and the Mystery of Wondering

The year of grace 1654, Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr,...

January 03, 2018

Approaching Mystery: Angela Crow’s “It’s a Cage”

“It’s a cage. It’s a cage. No, it’s a real cage.’” --Ta-Nehisi Coates ...

December 2017

December 27, 2017

Reflections on Family as Mystery from Joanna Penn Cooper

When I was in graduate school, I read a lot of books by American Buddhists...

December 13, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Rebecca Bratten Weiss’s “The Oil Never Runs Out”

When I was nineteen, I returned from a summer of working on an organic wheat...

December 06, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Joanna Penn Cooper Stares into a Puddle

“Think, dear sir, of the world you carry within you, and call this thinking what...

November 2017

November 29, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Jessica Mesman Griffith Peers at St. Agnes

As we approach the solstice, I am thinking about the truth and beauty found in...

November 02, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Susan L. Miller Says Goodbye to the Magic Portal

On October 25th, the Natural History Museum in New York closed the doors of its...

October 2017

October 26, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Rebecca Bratten Weiss Keeps On Dying

Here is a faded picture of two girls, one blond, the other brown-haired, dressed up...

October 20, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Simeon Berry’s Backstory

My Cub Scout leader was built like a dump truck. He was squat and...

October 12, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Marie Kopp Travels Those Haunted Appalachian Roads

I grew up in the Appalachians of Western Pennsylvania, enfolded in these ancient, forested mountains....

October 05, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Marybeth Bishop Haunts the Dead

States of Matter * I don’t know why the idea of dead bodies didn’t bother...

September 2017

September 27, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Joanna Penn Cooper Talks to the Dead

Last week, my brother was visiting from out of state, and one night he told...

September 21, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Seeing Ghosts with Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum

I have come for the quiet and the solitude. For two weeks, I’ll live in...

September 14, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Brian Doyle Attends “The Viewing”

Walked into the chapel at dusk last night, and there she was, in the casket...

September 07, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Playing Dead by Catherine Wiley

I’ve decided it must be possible to find out what death feels like.

September 06, 2017

Wind River and The Death of the “Godly Man.”

(Spoilers Ahead) A few nights ago, I returned from dropping off my kids and decided...

August 2017

August 29, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Sleepwalking by Issa Lewis

Camp Innisfree was “up north,” as people from Michigan's lower peninsula called anything north...

August 10, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Late Night Deck Sentence in the Rain

Once I loved the world, or thought I did, I prayed every night, read parts...

July 2017

July 20, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Timekeeping

Some of the most interesting writing happening today exists in the liminal space between genres—micro-memoir,...