One of my favorite parts of teaching is writing with my students. In my Hope College class this fall, we did a series of writing experiments — assignments more focused on exploration than perfection. One of my favorites was an imitation of a...
Earlier this summer, I wrote about interviewing my grandma with my cousin, Sara Lamers Messink. A poet, a teacher, and one of my first friends, Sara and I grew up bridging the 80 miles that separated us with weekly letters exchanged back and forth. We...
A couple of years ago we purchased my husband’s childhood home from his parents. I love the sprawling backyard that overlooks a farm – waking to the pink light of the sun rising over the field, the distant sound of a tractor, the wild turkey that pecks and scurries...
“We’re all just walking each other home.” — Ram Dass Nestled back in the corner of my basement storage room are boxes of letters. Letters my cousin and I wrote back and forth weekly as children. Letters from camp counselors and cabin...