I wasn’t a big reader as a kid. I read a few of the Great Illustrated Classics, because they had big font and pictures on every other page (Call of the Wild, Black Beauty, and King Arthur were my favorites). I also read AR books in school for points to win prizes. And thanks in…
I was nearing the end of my walk, approaching the last bend before the wide-open field, when a voice startled me. “Guys, I need help!” a child’s voice cried out from beneath the bridge. I paused, looking toward the direction of the voice, when a group of kids, like a swarm of bees, suddenly appeared…
(Editor’s note: we’re interrupting regular programming this week to bring you some contemplative pieces for Holy Week. We’ll be back to regular posting next week. A blessed week to you and yours.) This poem is best accompanied by a reading from John 11. The full text of the poem can be found right here. …
When my kids were young, I wanted them to choose activities I knew to be enriching: reading, drawing, building, creating, piecing together puzzles, inventing imaginative games. But when boredom came and I would suggest said activities, my ideas were often met with disinterest. Maybe it was because they were hoping I’d suggest something that required…
I was eight or nine, sitting at a beige plastic desk, a copy of the MCAS (the Massachusetts standardized test for elementary schoolers) test book on my right and an answer booklet full of bubbles under the pencil in my right hand. These testing sessions were times of great pressure (“Do your best!” “No cheating!”)…
Why do kids in western North Carolina need books when they don’t have drinkable water? It was hard not to wonder this after the historic flooding from Helene had dumped up to 31 inches of rain on us at the end of September 2024, washing away small towns, taking the homes and lives of neighbors,…
I stand on the threshold of Bag End and peer inside. There’s an armchair by the hearth and a kettle that’s “just beginning to sing”. There’s magic here, and friendship, and long-expected birthday parties. I don’t particularly enjoy standing here on the threshold of Bag End, on the outside, where it feels like the eighth-grade…
“Come back and see us,” she said. “We’ll be here.” And as we turned in our coats to go, she caught me once more: “And enjoy yourselves. Have fun.” This was just after she’d said she was bored of bingo, and couldn’t they offer more activities for the long, dark nights at the nursing home? She’d worked her…
Last week I finished reading Rabbit Hill, by Robert Lawson, aloud with my children. We were drawn to the simplicity of the setting and storyline. It was reminiscent of the beautiful Colorado valley where we spend lots of time at Granny’s house—and of the animals who dwell there, often helping themselves to snacks from trash…
I walked outside before dawn, not sure if I was happy to be awake, and there it was — the sky. Even in my sleepiness the brilliance of the stars amazed me. As I set out for a walk with my dog, I had to stop once more and gaze up. The magnitude of the…
Around the dawn of our first daughter, a friend shared a brilliantly shining jewel of wisdom with me, a concept that has been a loving lifeline and a joy ever since: the Corner of Sanity. To explain, let me take you back to a hot Phoenix afternoon in 2012. The details of the afternoon are…
Once there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest and most haughty woman that was ever seen. She had, by a former husband, two daughters of her own humor, who were, indeed, exactly like her in all things. He had likewise, by another wife, a young daughter, but of unparalleled goodness…
