Four years ago, I walked through the gas chambers at Auschwitz. I stood in between the barracks buildings and imagined Nazi soldiers unloading masses of humanity from trains and pushing them along the gravel roads toward extermination. I stood in concrete buildings looking through glass into rooms filled with the belongings of the people who lost their lives there: one […]
I was trying to do some organizing and purging of digital files this evening. A friend mentioned on Facebook yesterday how full of junk her digital files were, and commented, “I don’t think I would have let them get so messy if they were physical and I could see them.” I’m in the same boat. I do tend to collect […]
I was talking with a coworker today about the location of another area church. He explained to me that it was just up Park Road from the Quail Hollows Shopping Center, where Gleneagles Road intersects Park. I knew the point of reference. Just last week I was over that way for lunch with a friend. My coworker’s directions to the […]
It’s Thursday, and in the world of social media, that means the hashtag #tbt is making the rounds. “Throwback Thursday” it’s called—an opportunity to post those photos from the years before social media, the ones sitting in albums and desk drawers. I’ve actually never done a #tbt post. I considered using the hashtag on Tuesday of this week when I posted […]
I’ve got an app on my phone called Timehop. Every day it gives me a catalog of all of my social media posts on this day in previous years. I shall begin by saying with pride that I have not yet used it to find fodder for this month’s blog posts. I shall then break my victorious streak and tell […]
And then there was the day that I didn’t want to write a blog post. I wondered when it would happen. I was feeling pretty impressed by myself for making it through nearly two-thirds of the month without running out of ideas or just simply not wanting to write. But I’ve hit my wall. I don’t feel like it. I’m […]
I sat in Julie’s living room this evening. I walked in, looked at the sofa, and turned to look back at her. “I’ve never sat down in this room before,” I said. She raised one eyebrow and cocked her head a little. “How is that?” I gestured to the darkened screen porch out the back door. “I’ve spent many hours […]
My sister Jessie just FaceTimed me from Singapore. She’d just gotten off with Mom and Dad, currently in Hawaii. “It’s strange,” she said. “They’re six hours ahead of us, but a day behind.” I recall that strange feeling. For the vast majority of my life I have lived in the Eastern Time Zone. Therefore most of Asia is twelve or […]
I drive through a quiet neighborhood on my way to work. This morning I was forced to drive it like a mad woman, dodging squirrels right and left that jumped out from the side of the road that ran across in front of me. They scooted by as my tires rolled through the leaves scudding across the road. One had […]
There’s a spot along the North Carolina/Tennessee border where the mountains grow more angular, as if they’ve sucked in their breath. Their spines arch across the sky and all their rib bones show under their skin of trees. I’ve decided it’s my favorite view on the drive to Nashville. Evidently I’ve driven that route enough times to feel like a […]