Today is much like the day in this photo. The sun shines brightly and fiercely. The sky wears its best blue. Winter grips us tightly enough, teasing those of us who live in the South with its power to turn into a deathly reality. The difference in today and the day of this photo is… Read more
Naysayers become weather experts as fast as the weather develops. Hurricane Ida weaves her way toward our Gulf Coast, yet undecided exactly where she will bestow her wrath. But she’s coming and she’s gaining speed. This is considered a big news day, weekend even, for reporters. And right on their heels are the people who… Read more
Remember the blue back and orange back biographies that proliferated our library shelves in elementary school? I read every one of them. Hence the comments on my report card, “Jennifer reads too many library books.” Presented as nonfiction, many of these biographies were doctored to present a more noble heritage. True or not, they did… Read more
For good or bad, those “first times” we do many things are etched into our memory bank. I have such a memory. The first time I was paid for my writing. It was in the mid-1960’s, the beginning my college career. I knew I wanted to “major in journalism.” To date, I had written for… Read more
May 30, 1431, Joan de Arc was burned at the stake. This is significant to our family. Fast-forward a few years to the early 1990’s and a rising third grader. During the summer, my son discovered Joan of Arc—through a video game, I recall—and his was intrigued. He came to me, asking if there were… Read more
“Tell me about when I was born.” An unusual request from my only sibling. But a legitimate one since my sister is almost 10 years younger. On a sister’s weekend, we had just settled onto our comfy beds in our room at the beach. Driving rain pelted our windows, roaring waves pounded the beach and… Read more
“Jennifer reads too many library books” wasn’t the only comment my elementary school teachers regularly wrote on my report cards. The other was “Jennifer talks too much.” I absorbed these comments as failures. But, through the intervening years when these comments resurfaced, I gradually decided what they wrote was not what they meant. One can… Read more
It was the day before Thanksgiving. She introduced herself, and with a startled look said, “You don’t look XX-years-old.” Then she locked her huge brown eyes onto my small hazel ones. “It’s a baby tumor.” The oncology surgeon let that sink in and repeated it several times. With that, I was ushered into the world… Read more
With the movie based on her award-winning book in theaters finally, a book about her spiritual legacyjust published and the 100th anniversary of her birth approaching in November, Madeleine L’Engle is in the news, as they say. Even though she died in 2007, she remains as current as the day’s news for me. She continues having a proI… Read more
My local Kroger delivered yet another blog post for me. Readers probably think all I do is shop at Kroger. I don’t. I try to go once a week, on Wednesdays, which used to be senior discount days. Shopping at my neighborhood Kroger is a treat; no matter what day I go. Interesting people are… Read more