Her stories of hurt, anger, and isolation brought forth painful childhood memories I thought I had long tucked away. I spent much of my youth bullied by the same kinds of mean girls Nellie represented. I remember the day the most popular girl in the school gave me a note from my crush, saying he thought I was ugly. He didn’t write the note…

I love how Garwood starts each chapter with a letter that the characters wrote to their Mama Rose for several years before the ‘start’ of the story. It gives me glimpses of the past without breaking the momentum of present events. Some are short and funny while others are lengthy…

How much one-to-one time do we give our children really? Not one-to-one while we’re washing up or while we’re thinking about something else, but true one-to-one time where we actively listen to our children and give them an opportunity to really speak to us…

If there’s one thing that doesn’t resonate with me, it’s safe writing. It’s often sterile, boring, and shallow. When writers distance themselves from their words, they end up filling pages with an excuse to write, often without saying anything of much substance. I’ve only just started…

…I’ll admit, it’s nerve-racking to find yourself in a foreign country, in a classroom full of expectant students, trying to teach a language that’s supposedly your mother tongue. It’s more complicated than you’d think. It was my first time in front of a class.

It’s not easy for me to begin reading a book of poetry. Poetry wastes no time drilling into the depths of the cavities I desperately pretend are just stains. It has a way of crippling my defenses and ripping open my heart to the meanings between the letters.

Although I was always a nature mystic (my childhood is steeped in memories of the fecundity of nature—of enjoying walks in the woods with my dog and finding tadpoles in the creek, and embracing our yearly vacations to northern Michigan with the…

Miałem wiele momentów w moim życiu, kiedy często w bolesny sposób zastanawiałem się dlaczego mój brat bliźniak opuścił mnie zaraz po swoich narodzinach. Moje wątpliwości i wiele retorycznych pytań, które ciągle pojawiały się w moim życiu…

One of Aleph’s most powerful reminders is that once you feel love for someone and although it might change with time—whether by becoming stronger, more tame, or any other variation—once love for someone has taken root in the heart, it never completely…

John’s descriptions of Labrador retrievers are spot-on—the tail commentary makes me grin; I’m always making fun of Molly for her big butt knocking over everything. My in-laws yelp when Molly comes near them—apparently, her tail is like a whip and leaves welts on them, something I apparently never notice.

As a Christian, these gritty narratives challenge me, but I think that even if I wasn’t a Christian, I would be moved by the absolute trust given under the strangest of circumstances, by the lack of motive behind the giving, and by the levels of faith played out over the…

Grandma Patricia is a delightful bundle of contradictions. Along with being quite superstitious, she’s a devout Catholic and passes out condoms in her village. She is the grandmother I imagine I would have had, not just because of her liberal ideas on contraception, but…

According to Cline, we are clogging our environment with disposable clothing, primarily made of polyester, and the effect is as bad as throwing away a plastic bottle. I now realize that discarding a cheap t-shirt after one season is just as bad. If I won’t…

I don’t think we’re more connected than ever before. Well, ok, from a professional standpoint, yes, technology has enabled us to choose with whom to collaborate based on desired skill sets and common objectives; at least that’s true for those of us who have access to that…

It seems that to get to such a stage of artistry, you can’t avoid the analytical; it’s the bridge that joins the gut with the mind. But if you are of the artistic mind, if you don’t think in terms of balance sheets and flowcharts, how do you escape the artist’s poverty mentality? Is that…