Photo by dominik reallife on Unsplash The Reformed Journal, home of the The Twelve blog, where I often fill in as a writer, has recently refreshed and rebooted. I encourage you to check them out — the editors are working hard to curate a great...
My essay is featured on The Reformed Journal’s Twelve blog today, as I reflect on one of my favorite essays, “Dwarves in the Stable” by Frederick Buechner. “This belief — that stories matter, stories change us, stories are simultaneously deeply...
In 2018, I celebrated November by posting a book each day that I love. In November of 2020, I’ll be celebrating beautiful sentences. You are welcome to join me! #beautifulnovembersentences. During a year when there is so much pain and struggle around us, we...
Yesterday, as I talked to various friends on the phone, logged into my email, joined in group texts, checked in on social media, and tried to stay quarantined but connected, I’ve been struck by the vastly different reactions the people around me are having to...
“Be more specific,” I used to tell my writing students. “Don’t say cereal when you could say Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Don’t say your character walked into the room when you could say he sauntered in. Don’t say you were reading a book, say you were...
Photo by Thom Holmes on Unsplash A friend’s mom, (a dear woman I’ve written about here before), raising four kids — all six years and under and with only one family car her husband took to work each day — once wrote a letter to the State of Maine...