Two more pieces have been added to the Stories category: As Strong as Death …A sob caught in her throat and she rose, trembling. There was a reason she had kept that chest of memory so tightly locked all these years. It was a Pandora’s Box, full of things she couldn’t bear. And now that…
Those who know me best would never label me a ‘big camper’–that is, until the Airstream came along… Here is a little story about our summer vacation with my sister and her husband…
I believe that if my husband and I were limited to one choice of music for the rest of our lives that choice would unequivocally rest on The Innocence Mission. We have very broad musical tastes: 1960’s samba, early English church music, Mozart and Tchaikovsky, classic bluegrass, and a hundred things in between. But nothing…
The leaves are falling from the walnuts in the backyard today in showers of pale gold; I like it that they shed their raiment before the other trees–it only heightens the sense of anticipation abroad. And though the temperature will undoubtedly top 85 later on, early this morning I caught the unmistakable sweetness of woodsy…
Kilmeny looked up with a lovely grace, But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny’s face: As still was her look and as still was her ee, As the stillness that lay on the emerant lea, Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea. I had been in the book stall at our local…
What imaginative girl has not been captivated by the works of Lucy Maud Montgomery? With a loving eye and a ready pen she gave to the world a tiny island off the coast of New Brunswick and a little band of girl heroines that have delighted the souls of ‘kindred spirits’ the world over. How…
"When I think of the life that we are leading, of the uses to which we have put the bounty provided for us by the Almighty, when I think of the greed and the lust and the selfishness that is crowding everything that is high and holy and delicate, that is kind and loving and…
This is just to say that I have been updating my site over the past few days, including both the Gallery and Music pages. Look for more to come in Stories soon…Also, I have added a ‘Contact’ page. Any comments will be forwarded to me via email. I prefer real paper letters as a general…
Aren’t you bursting with butterflies on the fourth of September?Like you’ll have to get on the bus in your tartan dress, with your lunch box.Though your body is twenty-nine. Though your mind is an old thing. Karen Peris Beginning the World Philip and I had a bonfire last night. The unbearable humidity has given way…
Anyone who has loved Maud Hart Lovelace’s ‘Betsy-Tacy’ series will no doubt be delighted to learn that these books were basely almost entirely on her very happy girlhood in a small Minnesota town at the turn of the last century. Maud grew up in a loving and supportive family that encouraged her in her dreams…
One of my mother’s best friends has family in Gulfport, MS. After three tormented days word has just come in that they are alive and safe–but they have lost everything. Many of their friends have died. There is nothing left of their home but utter devastation. How precious Life appears when saved from wreckage such…
Augusta Evans’ St. Elmo belongs to that class of fiction which my sister and I lovingly refer to as ‘high Victorian’. If you are in the mood for heart-rending melodrama, virtuous pale-faced heroines with raven tresses, impossible love and evil characters convincingly reformed by the Gospel :), then I venture to suggest any one of…
Here is a lecture given by Dr. Peter Kreeft of Boston College on C. S. Lewis’ beautiful and obscure Till We Have Faces. Having devoured the book with delight and awe, I still found myself trying to wrap my mind around some of the weightier concepts of this masterful re-telling of the Cupid and Psyche…
I picked up a copy of this 1964 gem at my grandmother’s: Elegance: A Complete Guide for Every Woman Who Wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux. I have every reason to suspect that my grandmother took very seriously the dictates of this classic guide to style, and…
May 2, 2005 Philip and I had quite the Gene Stratton Porter experience today. We’ve been troubled about the recent tenants that have taken up residence in our prize black walnut, namely, a swarm of honeybees. We actually saw them swarm a few weeks ago, and were pretty frightened by the sheer…
We had a dinner party Saturday night. Both of us were shocked when we realized how long it had been since we’d had a real sit-down china-and-crystal affair, what with working on the house and family weddings and all…I was as obsessively excited about it as Virginia Woolfe’s Mrs. Dalloway…I planned the menu with excruciating…
for Marshall–Nulla dies sine linea Those who know me best would never label me a ‘big camper’—that is, until the Airstream came along. I was driving home from my book club one afternoon, navigating the rush hour traffic, when something along the roadside caught my eye. I smiled and progressed to the next red light. …
I just love it when I come a across a passage in a book that rings with a truth I have experienced. I’ve known longings such as these expressed in the excerpt below. And I’ve known the sweetness of a desire fulfilled. Any word of encouragment that I could offer to unmarried girls that wish…
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