PastorG sent this on Friday…
I suck at Halloween. I always have. It was not a good idea to go to the church “Halloween Festival” dressed as Big Ben (yes, I did.) I was around 8, and I covered a box with butcher paper and drew a clock on it. I promise, […]

Not.
I.
It’s the most wonderful day of the year. The day I look forward to, the day which, whenever it crosses my mind, causes me to smile and sigh dreamily. I have been known to break out into a happy dance during the week leading up to it.
I am speaking, of course, of the day that […]

today is the twenty-seventh of October.
Twenty-seven Octobers ago, I was in first grade. (I’ve skipped a lot of years, eh? The memory gets fuzzy.)
I don’t remember much about October of that year. I don’t even remember my Halloween costume, but I do remember the big Halloween carnival that took place in the front courtyard of […]

once, after church, i reached into my desk,
scrambled through papers,
and found a sticker for my daughter,
a crimson five-pointed star.
i don’t remember the reason:
had she been silent and still during hymns and prayers,
or was it a just-because?
on her way out, she dashed into the room across the hall
to see the long rope
hanging through a hole in […]

she clomps across the floor
in her shiny black mary janes
that she calls her tap shoes,
orders me to lie down,
and presses the stethoscope to my breast.
her eyes get that faraway, listening look.
then she turns for the thermometer,
adjusting her firefighter’s hat.

First off, C enjoyed the library, and especially getting the library card. We got her the small kind that has a hole in one end (for keychains), and we put it on a piece of yarn for her to wear as a necklace on library days. Ha! Do you honestly think she’s willing to limit […]

Ah, evenings. Dinner’s done; I can hear mommy’s meal percolating away, digesting nicely… wonderful white noise to accompany my evening nap, while she sits and does whatever quiet thing she does all evening. Then she will lay down for her own sleep, at which time I will be refreshed, full of energy and ready for […]

Today is October eighteenth.
Eighteen Octobers ago, I was in high school, I lived in Dallas,
and we went to the fair every year.
the texas state fair in 90 seconds
big tex
fletcher’s corn dogs
funnel cake that burns your fingers but you can’t wait
the texas star ferris wheel against a faded denim sky
family
the music hall
the cotton bowl, texas/oklahoma […]

I have loved the show “Inside the Actors Studio” over the years. I love the glimpse into the creative process, although the host is quite pompous and there’s more than a little bit of Hollywood gossip (What’s it like to work with De Niro?). Aw, who am I kidding, that’s pretty fun too.
At the end […]

Today is the 14th of October.
Fourteen Octobers ago, I was a sophomore in college.
Put simply, fall of sophomore year was a warm steaming barrel of shit. Honestly. It was just a big pile of manure.
I spent the second half of freshman year, and the summer following, basically between a rock and a hard place. The […]

it’s happened before, but sooner this time.
i’m twangy as a country song,
a loose woman, swaggering through honky-tonk joints:
the bottom stair feels rickety in my stupor;
the phone falls, hits my shoe,
and two-steps across the wood floor;
a plate drops from my hand,
its contents sprawl drunkenly in my lap.
everything slips away now, except the one
thing, deep in my […]

Gentle readers, I have been on retreat yesterday and today at the local Dominican Retreat House. A few of you may remember my going back and forth about whether to accept the invitation to write an article for the preaching journal. Well, after my characteristic waffling “huh? me?” (which you can read in all its […]

Today is the eleventh of October.
Eleven Octobers ago, it was 1994.
That month, R and I got married.
I wrote something for our tenth anniversary last year, but didn’t say anything about the actual event. Here are a few quick memories about our wedding…
How it all began
In January of 1994, R and I were seniors at Rice […]

early Sunday morning
your father took up tools
and pulled apart your crib,
piece after piece,
stacking them in a room waiting
empty, across the hall, to receive them.
then with those same tools
he put together for you
a new bed:
beautiful, sturdy, and safe.
you stretched out your body
and lifted up your eyes
to a rainbow canopy
and smiled,
grateful.
and
later that morning
your mother took bread
and pulled […]

Today is the fifth of October.
Five Octobers ago, it was 2000…
I remember a particularly wonderful fall day with R in north Georgia, at Amicalola Falls State Park, a pumpkin farm, and even a little shopping at an outlet mall. Hey, I am not too granola (there’s that word again) to say that the Williams Sonoma […]

As I said, I’ve always loved the month of October. There have been some memorable Octobers and some mundane ones over my 33 years. So I had this strange idea for a blogging discipline this month—take the day, count back that number of years, and write something about October of that year. For example, on […]

One of the quirks of journalscape that I really like is that the main page displays all of the entries for an entire month. The downside is that it was nagging at me all day that even though it’s now October (my favorite month), the blog will still displaying September stuff until I post something […]