Now that I’m finally still on my front porch and the costumed children are indoors riding sugar highs that battle sleep and parents, I realize that it’s a happy All Hallow’s Eve because a particular seventeen year old comes to mind in the stillness; reflecting on my day, I see how God satisfied several prayers … Continue reading Prayers, Mentors, and Advocates

There’s no quiet, no solitude tonight.  It’s beautiful outside, but my mind could focus only on the bass in my neighbor’s playlist, barely audible.  I turned off my AC in hopes of finding solace in the backyard with the raccoons, finally retreating to my living room after realizing the family across the alley wasn’t bringing … Continue reading When Attention Hangs in the Periphery

It’s cold tonight.  It’s fall, and I need a little freedom from the order, the structure – to escape syntax for the sheer desire to shed thoughts.  Absent system, writing doesn’t process.  It flows from brain to fingertip, uninhibited by organization that typically forces words into rhythmic patterns encased in varied sentence structure.  My student, … Continue reading In a Land Far, Far Away

Of all the weekday hours, my best time is spent here on my front porch, one-hundred and thirty-five Tuesday nights in a row.  I relish the escape, as though the world disappears and time stands still.  Though even I appreciate the sentiment, the inductive reasoning falls flat.  You can’t literally spend time, and you literally … Continue reading Timeline: Verbal Irony

On a night like tonight, it doesn’t matter that summer’s over and winter is coming; the stillness of a cool October evening soothes overworked neurotransmitters.  I didn’t fall in love with fall until I fell in love with Charming… about this same time two years ago.  Fall brought Charming, and together they were a calm, … Continue reading Going to the Chapel…