Cat Essay part 2- The Kitten Room
NB: This is the first draft of the second part of a five-part essay I'm writing for a creative nonfiction class you guys paid for me to take. You can…
Bonus Essay
The cat essay - part 1
I'm taking another class (which you guys paid for - thank you!) on creative nonfiction writing, and an assignment is to write a longish essay in five sections. I'll be…
Waiting
They were retired farmers, but now lived in a small house on 3 acres we had sold them for $300. According to my grandmother, the best deal she ever made…
The Delta
Two pieces of housekeeping: Some folks have asked after the kittens - They are doing much better! Their eyesight is better, and it looks like they will all have sight…
Three blind kittens
They are basically helpless, being five weeks old, blind and weighing less than a pound each. They also have a respiratory infection, and thus can't smell where the food is…
Muscadines in August
I made muscadine jelly this week. It holds many memories for me, and so I thought I would tell you about it. This piece is long - it needs to…
The new photo
I had most of an essay done, and planned to finish it up this morning. But then I got distracted, and decided to just tell you about what I was…
Common Ground
Hey y'all!
A couple of quick notes:
I have a contract! Effective last Monday, I am now the the Interim Director for a regional nonprofit that works to end inequity…
A couple of quick notes:
I have a contract! Effective last Monday, I am now the the Interim Director for a regional nonprofit that works to end inequity…
There are no 12 steps for this.
I have lived with depression my entire life.
When I was a kid, we didn’t call it depression. Instead, we said I was a moody child. That I was “in…
The tool chest of the proletariat.
When it comes to the sort of woodworking I like to do, there are broadly speaking, a couple of ways people store their tools.
Some people hang their tools on…
The limits of my methodology
I have never been good at school.
To be clear, I usually made good grades in school, but that was just my masking to meet their expectations. Many of us…
The jangle
It has been said that beggars cannot be choosers. As someone who worked among the unhoused community for nearly a decade and a half, I can assure you that whoever…
Community
Hey y'all - It's been a rough but generative spring so far. I have a lot going on, and I am running about like a man with my hair on…
Sam
Not all the stories about my time working among the unhoused are about death, I promise. But it was the deaths that did me in, and that ultimately made me…
Karen's World
Hi y'all!
On Tuesday of last week, my friend Karen died. The funeral was Friday, in Raleigh, NC, so I cancelled all the meetings for the end of the week…
On Tuesday of last week, my friend Karen died. The funeral was Friday, in Raleigh, NC, so I cancelled all the meetings for the end of the week…
CJ
Content warning: This is a story about a couple I knew and worked with who were unhoused, and whose baby was stillborn.
As I write these stories about the time…
As I write these stories about the time…
Called
While I am a credentialed Christian pastor, I have an awkward sort of relationship with it. I was ordained by the Mennonite Church USA on a Palm Sunday (which is…
Next Steps
It’s a pretty normal coffee shop. They also bake bread there, which is nice, and they have a strong lunch game, and even better for me, they are around the corner from my house. I hold lots of meetings there.
It’s crowded when I get there to meet my boss’s boss, who had called me a couple of days before to set up this meeting to discuss “where we go from here.”…
Senselessness
Mike was what we in the South call “a character”. He was a short, trim man, just a hair over 5 feet tall. I knew for a fact he was 62 years old, but he always seemed much younger than that, mostly, I think, because of his huge infectious smile.
Mike was gay, and was given to incongruent dressing. He would wear a polo and khakis, but with high heeled shoes. Or…
I'll figure it out.
My younger brother is 47 years old, and has worked for the same company since he was seventeen. Thirty years at the same place - well, working in various locations, but for the same company. These days he’s in management, and unless something drastic happens, he will probably retire from there in another 20 years.
On the other hand, I am 52 years old, and since I was sixteen, the list of…