As a reader and editor for River Teeth, one of my major biases was dying mom stories. Writers think just because their loved one has died or might die or is dying, they ought to write about her. It’s sad. It’s hard. It’s life changing. So we write dying mom stories. The trouble with the vastContinueContinue reading “Dying Mom Stories and New Year’s Resolutions”
Category Archives: joy
Praise God from whom all shopping bags flow…?
I stood in line for an hour and a half without a cart carrying a basket full of stuff and two boxes full of more stuff for $160 worth of merchandise today. There was much sighing. I kept telling myself, this might be the only day you have free child care and can actually goContinueContinue reading “Praise God from whom all shopping bags flow…?”
Advent Day 21: We Are Outraged!
It is the darkest day of the year. Folks in the northern hemisphere will see just nine hours and thirty-two minutes of daylight today, and if you are here in Ohio, that light is blocked by a thick layer of clouds and rain. Time is short to spread the light, to let the light shineContinueContinue reading “Advent Day 21: We Are Outraged!”
Advent Day Ten: God With Us
It’s true, I tell you, it’s true. Grant me this moment of ecstasy, this moment removed from the grief and the pain and the loss that seems to overshadow this season of hope. God is with us; I’ve witnessed it sprawled on the floor after our multiple miscarriages, in the NICU after Elvis was born,ContinueContinue reading “Advent Day Ten: God With Us”
Advent Day Three: His Resting Place
“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.”HeContinueContinue reading “Advent Day Three: His Resting Place”
Well, Hello There
Would ya look at that? It’s been a month. The MFA summer residency was here and then gone, those two weeks that last two months and then feel like just days once it’s over. I think it might have been the smoothest residency we’ve run since 2007, which is saying something, since I was alsoContinueContinue reading “Well, Hello There”
Advent – The Third Candle: Joy, Mary’s Candle (Poem)
First“But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.” – Luke 2:19 You wouldn’t stop moving, pushed against my ribs, and I pushed back. We exchanged our first conversation,just my skin between your hand and mine. We spoke our first nursery rhyme, sang our first hymn. I breathe every memory—not of visitors orContinueContinue reading “Advent – The Third Candle: Joy, Mary’s Candle (Poem)”
Advent Day 15 & 16: Gifts
The kids went Christmas shopping for their family members on Saturday, and what fun it was to see what they picked out for each person and the thought they put into gifts they thought each person would like! I was impressed at their ability to focus on others, especially in the toy aisle, where thereContinueContinue reading “Advent Day 15 & 16: Gifts”
Advent Day Six: Don’t Color Christmas Pictures
I intended for the kids to color Christmas pictures last night for Advent but, well, it didn’t work out. Last night was Lydia’s first basketball practice. She had fun, and I’ll refrain from going into all of the details about chasing Henry up and down the hallways, blockading him from trying to run onto theContinueContinue reading “Advent Day Six: Don’t Color Christmas Pictures”
Spring break 2012 – girls gone wild! With poetry!
I am sitting in the house I grew up in with all three of my kids sound asleep by 8 o’clock, drinking a glass of wine and writing poetry. This has been one of those amazing weeks you can never plan or count on happening for fear of disappointment, but when they come about, allContinueContinue reading “Spring break 2012 – girls gone wild! With poetry!”
Sarah Marie Wells 