In September of 1931 J.R.R. Tolkien, Hugo Dyson, and C.S. Lewis took part in a late-night conversation at Oxford University. This was not only a pivotal moment in Lewis’s life (helping to convince him of the validity of Christianity), but also a well-chronicled moment for mythopoeic grace. Two of the great literary figures of the […]
Threshold
My grandparent’s house has been pink for about as long as I can remember. Nestled in a quiet neighborhood, only a few doors down from a church with a bell. The house had a palm tree in the front yard and a giant evergreen near the garage that seemed perennially a home to an owl. […]
Pictures on the Ceiling
I have a lot of siblings; and when I was little, we always had more than one triple decker set of bunks. My stuffed animals and I slept at the top, where we were thrust — not quite to the stars — but right up to the spackle on the ceiling. By day, I would […]
To A Beginning Reader
NOTE: We plucked this one from the archives, because I think Kelly’s lovely welcome to new readers should be repeated for ALL new readers! – JDW Dear Child, Today you read your first word. It was “at.” You then proceeded to read “am,” “an,” and “ad.” These are small words as the English language goes […]
Encouraging the ‘Why’
There is a certain little word that can make parents crazy. It is worse than ‘Oww!’, more frustrating than ‘No!’, and more challenging than ‘Mine!’ That word is: ‘Why?’ At a far-too-young age most children discover the word ‘why’ and its mystical powers for simultaneously getting parents to talk and flustering them. My wife and […]