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September 2022

September 01, 2022

You Can’t Change the Stories People Tell

It's been a month since the meltdown with my grandmother and aunts. I've been thinking...

June 2022

June 08, 2022

Just To Stay Poor Another Day

There is a myth that gets told in just about every culture, with variations...

March 2022

March 11, 2022

When I Wasn’t Writing

Anxiety and depression tend to creep up. When they come with a bout of my...

March 05, 2022

A Last-Minute House for a Family of Six: A Story By Rose

"Can you voice?" asked Rose one evening, as usual. "Voicing" is how Rosie makes up...

February 2022

February 05, 2022

Put Out In Deep Water

A Reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah: In the year King Uzziah died,...

January 2021

January 30, 2021

The Child Inside Didn’t Die

Rosie handed me a piece of brown construction paper with circles drawn on it....

December 2020

December 30, 2020

A Witness to Life

I am writing a narrative. No, not that kind of narrative. Not the kind people...

January 2020

January 26, 2020

Imagine a Flock of Tongue-Cut Sparrows

At my grandparent's house in Maryland, there was a three-volume clothbound set of sparsely illustrated...

November 2019

November 21, 2019

Rod Dreher, Saint Benedict, and the Case of the Ignorant Secretary

People are still up in arms about Chick-fil-A. Conservative Christian commentators are furious. Rod Dreher...

September 2019

September 10, 2019

To The Survivor Who Might Be Considering Suicide

A friend shared a long public facebook status from somebody else this morning, and the...

April 2019

April 23, 2019

The Departure of Margaret Shank

My mother used to tell us stories about the housekeeper who worked for her...

January 2019

January 01, 2019

Where He May be Found

I met a man named Buster, who looked like Jesus. No, I actually did....

January 01, 2018

A Parade of Novel Ideas

You know those memes that are going around: "Comment and I'll write how I would...

December 2017

December 11, 2017

Santa Claus and the Broken Gift

I never knew how I'd broach the truth about Santa to my daughter, Rosie....

November 2017

November 29, 2017

What Does it Take for a Victim to be Believed?

By Donna Provencher I mulled a few hours too long about an uncomfortable Facebook message...

July 2017

July 27, 2017

Sharing Onions

My friend Rebecca has harvested her onions for the year. She set up a tent...

June 2017

June 11, 2017

Portrait of a Healer

On the wall of my bachelor uncle's bedroom, in my paternal grandparents' house, there were two...

January 2017

January 02, 2017

Polaris Is The Last Stop

Author's note: According to Sandra Boynton, today is Science Fiction Day. I decided to try...

December 2016

December 15, 2016

Sentimentality And The Hospital Santa Virus

It seems that there is significant doubt as to the veracity of that "heartwarming" five-year-old-dying-in-Santa's-arms story...

October 2016

October 17, 2016

Stop And Reverence These Icons With Me

(image via Wikimedia Commons) Stop what you're doing for a moment, and gaze on some...

September 2016

September 26, 2016

Soviet Children Fear the Dark: Mr. Rogers and the Call to Love Our Enemy

(image via Pixabay) I'm on an Eastern Countries kick lately. Want to hear about the...

August 2016

August 20, 2016

What Do We Do, When We Fold Our Hands? How Do We Pray For An Enemy?

(image via Pixabay) When I was very little, before I lived on the Planet Charismatic, when we...

August 16, 2016

A Myth is a Window

(image via Pixabay) Remember that wonderful legend about the angel chopping a man's hands off on...

July 2016

July 28, 2016

RIP, Jerry Doyle

(Image: Jerry Doyle at San Diego Spacefest 2009. Photo by Phil Konstantin) Like all lovers of...

July 21, 2016

Vote Your Conscience?

When I was a little girl, I did not like the book Heidi very much....

July 12, 2016

The Stories People Tell

My little town in the Ohio Valley is just big enough to have its own bus...