Somewhere Between Luck and Trust: What’s It All About?
Where Luck Meets Trust, Miracles Can Happen Cristy Haviland served eight months in prison, giving birth behind bars to the child of the man who put her there and might yet destroy her. Now she’s free again, but what does that mean? As smart as she is, she has never learned to read. And that’s…
Read MoreHow I Spend My Summer Vacation: The Joys of Chautauqua Institution
Some of you have asked about the place where I spend my summers, so today a photo essay. Chautauqua Institution, in Chautauqua, NY,was founded in 1874 as the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly, an experiment in out-of-school learning. Although the Assembly was founded by Methodists, other denominations participated from the beginning. Now the Institution is an…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Let Us Praise
A Father’s Day Prayer Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland Let us praise those fathers who have striven to balance the demands of work, marriage, and children with an honest awareness of both joy and sacrifice. Let us praise those fathers who, lacking a good model for a father, have worked to become a good father. Let us…
Read MoreAnd How’s The Weather Treating You?
The Write Way: Writing Under Difficult Conditions. Can It Be Done?
“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” E. B. White Right now I’m sitting in my study listening to a generator in the house about 10 yards behind me. The generator is for the benefit of the roofers who are pounding away outside…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Serenity
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Reinhold Niebuhr There is such deep wisdom in this simple prayer. Participants in Alcoholics Anonymous have used these words for many years…
Read MoreRenovating a Novel and a House: How Much is Too Much?
Renovation is Not For Sissies: So what does a writer do when her home/workplace is filled with workmen and she has a book to write? In the beginning of May I left Florida believing I could settle into our 108 year old cottage in Chautauqua, New York. While there might be a few interruptions as…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Say YES!
This is going to sound crazy. Say yes to everything. Accept all offers. Go along with the plan. Support someone else’s dream. Say :yes”; “right”; “sure”; “I will”; “okay”; “of course”; “YES!” Cultivate all the ways you can imagine to express affirmation. When the answer to all questions is yes, you enter a new world,…
Read MoreWhat Do Readers Think? I Really Want to Know.
I’ve been hoping to have more renovation photos for you to enjoy (?) this week. The workmen are finishing up, so it’s a slow morning here in Chautauqua, New York. We only have a plumber, electrician, wallboard guy and flooring guy cutting tile. I can almost hear the birds sing. More photos will be up…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: “This is my home…”
“This Is My Song” (words by Lloyd Stone, to the tune of Finlandia) This is my song, oh God of all the nations, a song of peace for lands afar and mine. This is my home, the country where my heart is; here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine; but other hearts in…
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