Your Dark and Stormy Night

You say goodbye to a former neighbor, having enjoyed dinner together, and dash to your truck. Rainfall has shifted from drizzle to downpour. You switch from 2- to 4-wheel-drive. Dusk descends into the darkest of nights. You are driving to another friend’s house about...

What Am I Here After?

Last week, I had an opportunity to look back at an essay I’d written three years ago. I had been so proud of it, otherwise I wouldn’t have submitted it for publication. It got rejected and for good reason. Yikes. Reading that essay was like wandering into a Bed Bath...

Butterflies, Flowers, and Disillusionment

Last Saturday afternoon, on my way down the mountain to fetch the mail, I noticed a black swallowtail (Papilionidae) sipping nectar from cardinal flowers blooming on the slope beside the upper driveway. The bright red trumpet-shaped blossoms of lobelia cardinalis,...

On Faring Well

I placed my purse under the table, Bible next to the coffee pot, laptop on a chair then propped reading glasses on my head. It was Tuesday morning, which meant Bible Study in the sunroom at Mary Jane’s farm, and I was the note-taker. Those who wanted coffee helped...