U is for Unexpected

True Story. Science class in the ninth grade. Film day. The lights are off, the bubblesque TV perched atop a rolling stand soothes the room with flickering glow. Students slink down into their chairs, rest their feet on other chairs. For a few sacred moments, school is not a jungle. We put our masks away because …

Timothy McVeigh & I Agree on One Thing

My favorite poem was basically written by the one-legged pirate, Long John Silver. What's worse, my favorite poem was also the favorite of Timothy McVeigh, infamous building-bomber-baby-killer, who went so far as to quote it just before leaving this world by lethal injection in June, 2001. I remember thinking that McVeigh was about to meet …

God Loves Even the Meanest Person – Testimony Part I

There was a time when I did not take God seriously.  But no matter.  He took me seriously. Of my early memories, this one stands out-- my husband and I at age 16 were climbing on a jungle gym, talking about the meaning of life, and blithely dismissing God's hand in parting the Red Sea …

Hollow. Ween. A Zombie Tradition I Wish Would Just Die Already

More disgusting and mutilated than any front yard ornament or trick-or-treat costume I'll see this year is the philosophy behind this "cultural tradition" we call Halloween. Yes, some of you will hate me when I'm done. An impressionable sapling of a boy was riding in the car with his mom one day when he made …

Defined: Trouble

I grew up in a trailer court.  It was like our own little ecosystem some sick developer plopped in the middle of a Pennsylvania corn field.  Most of that corn never made it to harvest, as we stomped it down for forts and trails, hide and seek, and just for the thrill of destroying something. …

Good Morning

Upon waking, I sip my coffee either upstairs or downstairs, depending on which living space is less messy.  Today was a toss up.   These are my slippered feet and my PJ's; that is my cat, and this is what my view usually does NOT look like in the morning. Warning:  this may sound like …

Memories That Define Me

Gymnastics.  That defined me.  We practiced two nights a week and four hours on Saturdays.  Meets were Sundays.  I breathed gymnastics and can still mentally perform a round-off, back-handspring, double full twist.  That's 360° twice while revolving in  plank position.  And I can even get this  41-year-old body to perform it off a diving board. …