Sarah M. Wells

Destination: Mars

I’m participating in the #NaPoWriMo challenge to write a poem a day during National Poetry Month. So far, it’s off to a fun start. I’ve been using Carolee Bennett’s poetry prompts, and today’s I thought I’d share because it’s so wacky and off the wall and not at all the kind of poem I normallyContinue reading “Destination: Mars”

The Pace Car

Growing up, my family watched a lot of NASCAR. Our driver was Awesome Bill from Dawsonville, Bill Elliott, and we would cheer him on every Sunday, whether he was the #9 Coors car, the #11 Budweiser car, or the #94 McDonalds car. I had t-shirts and posters, people. It was serious. Whenever there were wrecks,Continue reading “The Pace Car”

The Things We’ve Lost and Where They’re Found

The pancake batter bowl is missing. I have twice opened and shut every kitchen cabinet drawer it could have been stuffed into by one of three children annoyed by the daily chore of unloading the dishwasher groooooan. Maybe it was the jesterly husband with all his high-minded opinions about where and how certain dishes oughtContinue reading “The Things We’ve Lost and Where They’re Found”

An Invitation to Best Society Post-Pandemic

Do come in for a spot of tea.I have not seen you for so long.—Emily Post, Etiquette, in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home (1922) After the throes of a global pandemic,who wouldn’t dedicate 38 chaptersto defining Best Society’s etiquette? There’s so much room to write the rules for social life when socializing comeswith aContinue reading “An Invitation to Best Society Post-Pandemic”

Making Space

At the beginning of 2020 and again at the beginning of the advent season, I wrote about the call to “make space” this year. This phrase manifested itself in a dozen different and surprising ways this year, but perhaps none more unexpected for me than my decision to step down from my role as DirectorContinue reading “Making Space”

A Christmas Poem

I remembered this poem this Christmas Eve morning as a I cracked an egg from our friend, Bill’s, chickens to make cinnamon rolls as part of our family tradition of cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. There are so many little miracles every day, the holy incarnate among us, if we just keep our eyes andContinue reading “A Christmas Poem”

Hope: Closer and Louder

We’re entering the season of advent. The days of advent are traditionally not days of celebration—they are days of longing for the light and voice of God to be heard through the darkness, for peace and justice to reign over oppression and violence. Before the time of Christ, the people of God were living inContinue reading “Hope: Closer and Louder”

My Ongoing Journey with a Suspected Case of COVID

It’s now been six months since Brandon and I got sick with low grade fevers and fatigue for 14 days, me with shortness of breath that was enough to be thinking about going to the hospital but not enough to feel like I might die. Tests were in short supply and reserved for the veryContinue reading “My Ongoing Journey with a Suspected Case of COVID”

Today I Am 38

So much has changed in the last six months, but in the year of our Lord and Coronavirus, my dog still sleeps in the cradle of my crossed legs each morning as I drink tea and watch the news with my husband. Our lives used to be busy. There was no breathing room, just constantContinue reading “Today I Am 38”

In the Wilderness of Coronavirus

In Ohio, our community interactions began to dwindle on March 15 with the closing of restaurants and bars, then dropped off sharply over the course of a week. It is now April 15, a stay-at-home order has been in place since March 23. If the order is lifted on May 1, it will be 40Continue reading “In the Wilderness of Coronavirus”