Do you remember Flat Stanley? The cut out that kids sent to their friends and family around the world? My son’s kindergarten teacher gave his class a gingerbread man to send instead of Stanley. Quinton’s cut out is making his way around Tokyo with my friend from high school who came to visit us this… Read more
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“Look at Mutt and Jeff!” I showed my teenager a picture of our cat and his brother. https://www.instagram.com/p/BNVFYxWB-Gn/?taken-by=karriezmy “Who?” He gave me a look that immediately reminded me that I speak an older version of English. I knew tucked in the back of my brain that my parents and grandparents used to say ‘Mutt and Jeff’ and… Read more
Spoiler Warning: If you haven’t seen Finding Dory and still want to be surprised, don’t read this. I recently told my English class that I have two sons. One is 17 and the other is 6. This means, I told them, that I have been watching kid movies since 1999. Many of the films numbed my… Read more
These publications meant much to me over the years as both a writer and a reader. If ALIVE NOW or WEAVINGS touched your own life or if you have ideas about what a spiritual publication might look like, please take the time to follow Beth’s instructions below… Read more
If you want to find a good read, go to a writing conference. Writers, I have learned, are jittery about their own books. As often as not, we struggle to tell you what our books are about or why we fell in love with our own stories enough to spend days, months, and years writing them. But as soon as… Read more
In the early 1990s, I traveled to Germany and became desperately homesick. I had decided I wanted to really learn German and went on a work visa to Hamburg, far away from the American military bases. I lived with a German friend in her apartment and found a job serving banquets in a nearby hotel. My German… Read more
Warning: My dog died. Read on at your own risk. Last weekend we had to say goodbye to our sweet Cosmo. It’s a sad story with a sad ending that I don’t feel like telling on the Interwebs. In fact, I’m late posting this week because I don’t feel like telling that story, but it’s… Read more
“For this weekend, you get to call yourselves writers loud and proud instead of in a small voice at the end of a long list of other things you do.” My writing teacher Lois Brandt said this (or something very like it) at the beginning of our Weekend on the Water retreat with the Society of Children’s… Read more