by Sara Whitestone This piece was originally published by GFT Press. Of all my States of Mind, Virginia is the hardest to unmix—to cipher down thousands of memories and moments into just a few words, to distill from so many impurities just a few potent truths. What do I write about Virginia, where I have … Continue reading Thankfulness
by Ann Marie Bausch Once upon a time, I was lucky enough to be invited on a free trip to Paris. I encountered the usual teasing beforehand—“Say you're Canadian”—and after I came home—“Was everyone really rude?” I always responded that I encountered no more rudeness in a week in France than I did in a … Continue reading Forgiving Our Small Towns
Upon his Feast Day, January 25 by John Estes In Jean Cocteau’s film Orphée, Orpheus (the most square-jawed Orpheus ever conceived, played with pompadour by Jean Marai) is challenged by the admissions committee to the gates of hell to explain what precisely (there is no almost in hell, he is told) what it means to … Continue reading St. Gregory Nazianzen, Divine Sensualist
by Amanda C. R. Clark People often tell me in hushed tones that they delight in book sniffing. These confessions are wrapped in happy, faux-guilt-laden shrugs of pleasure. There’s something magical in that almond and vanilla odor that wafts from books,[1] with pages sometimes yellow-edged, finger-smudged, marred by the occasional coffee or wine ring, a … Continue reading The Delights of Summer Reading, or Why We Take a Book to the Beach
by Polly Hollar Pauley I recently read that Japanese ceramic artists think that an item that has suffered damage becomes more beautiful, and that when an item is cracked they will fill in the cracks with gold. This evening we went to church for a hayride, one of the many advantages of an uber-rural congregation. … Continue reading Filling the Cracks with Gold
by Doug Sugano In my mind, this post is about a red hoodie. You may disagree, but it’s my post. My wife, Linda, and I have been friends with Jeannie and Tim for nearly thirty-five years (does it seem longer or shorter written out in words or numerically--35?). Many years ago, I was at grad … Continue reading The Motherhood of the Traveling Hoodie
by Heather Caliri I was a junior in college when my Bible study leader, Tina, recommended that I memorize Scripture. She pulled out a card from her pocket to show me. “I write my memory verse on this and carry it in my pocket,” she said. In her neat printing, it read, Blessed is the … Continue reading Hunger
by T. J. Pancake I took freshman-year health class as a sophomore in high school. It’s mostly about sex, which you would think 15-year-olds would love, except that it’s all in this maximally-awkward, birds-and-the-bees kind of way. It is, essentially, the worst. My teacher was one of those overly peppy, athletic health-nuts. For part of … Continue reading Being Born Again
by Kathryn Smith Beneath my patio, a silent upheaval. Silent to me, though the ants hear it in their own way, a vibration humming their legs, a pheromone alert in their antennae. The signals they give are clear: The colony has outgrown itself. A colony cannot serve two queens. The colony must divide. They … Continue reading Learning From the Ants
by Amanda C.R. Clark My friend and scholar Dr. Eric Cunningham recently wrote a chapter in Becoming Beholders (Liturgical Press, 2014), titled “Beholding the Eschaton,” which is an exploration of, as he writes, “an apocalyptic, psychedelic, postmodern guide to transcending the historical world, including some practical exercises on how to avoid becoming a zombie at … Continue reading Musings on a Christian Theory of Everything: Books in Temporal History
Rock & Sling 