Exploring the Third Season of Life

Notes from Vanaprastha

Reflections on Faith, Nature, and Writing

Recent Posts

Friendship and Forgiveness

Friendship and Forgiveness

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Valentine and Proteus, are best friends. At the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, they bid each other a loving farewell. Valentine then leaves for Milan to seek his fortune, while Proteus stays behind to woo Julia. When his father orders...

Shadowboxing with a Bear

Shadowboxing with a Bear

Driving home from class last Thursday night, I berated myself for being too little a “pantser” (writing by the seat of your pants) and too much a “plotter”—more accurately a plodder—when responding to in-class writing prompts. Though distracted, I approached the...

Backward Mapping

Backward Mapping

So. Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie MacDonald. Two plays within a back-to-the-future play at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton. Seat B3. In the opening scene, the protagonist, university assistant professor Constance Ledbelly, is writing...

Straight Path

Straight Path

Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you, Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. Proverbs 4:25-27   I killed a bunny...

Our Town

Our Town

Yesterday morning dawned overcast and chilly. While sipping coffee, I checked my newsfeed on Facebook. A dear friend had commented on a post from the daughter of a former neighbor of ours. The post began, “It is with heavy heart that I pay tribute to my dad, who...

May Day

May Day

May Day. Not the parade of workers and weapons in Communist countries. Not the pre-Christian pagan fertility festival. Today is May Day, the secular celebration of spring. I remember pictures in old high school and college yearbooks of girls dancing around a...