Writer
Spring Break 1994, Elsa and I went camping. This was our last spring break as students, since we were both completing our master's degrees in education that year. I had already started working as a long-term substitute teacher in the school district where Elsa and I had met and become friends in the late '80s.... Continue Reading →
Some holidays are so much like all the other holidays that they run together with the other ones in a big holiday soup. It's difficult to distinguish one from the next. This late-20th-century selfie was not from one of those holidays. I'm posing here with my brother, Tracy. This was the Thanksgiving that my half-sister,... Continue Reading →
Who doesn't love a Santa Selfie? I remember explaining to this particular Santa what I wanted to do because the term selfie didn't exist yet. "Can I take a picture of us together, but, you know the kind where someone holds the camera out like this, and the picture is just two big faces?"... Continue Reading →
We packed your bag today. I told you the stories of when I went to where you are going now. The deep, dark woods of life. I told you about the night I got cold and hungry and found a bears' house to sleep. About the time your uncle and I left breadcrumbs to the... Continue Reading →
“I may yet be worthy of the name of woman, in the purist and noblest sense. Yes, I will be if resolution and perseverance can accomplish anything.” Alice Marshall Finch, May 1866 This is a line from my great-great grandmother’s journal. She was 18 or 19 when she wrote this and living near Richmond, Virginia.... Continue Reading →
It is the Red-White-and-Blue summer of 1976. I am five years old. My parents are—I believe—off somewhere sorting out the details of their looming divorce, while my grandmother, Polly, takes me and my brothers swimming at a lake somewhere in either North or East Texas. I am five, so the details are unclear. What is... Continue Reading →
Spring Break 1994, Elsa and I went camping. This was our last spring break as students, since we were both completing our master's degrees in education that year. I had already started working as a long-term substitute teacher in the school district where Elsa and I had met and become friends in the late '80s.... Continue Reading →
Some holidays are so much like all the other holidays that they run together with the other ones in a big holiday soup. It's difficult to distinguish one from the next. This late-20th-century selfie was not from one of those holidays. I'm posing here with my brother, Tracy. This was the Thanksgiving that my half-sister,... Continue Reading →
Who doesn't love a Santa Selfie? I remember explaining to this particular Santa what I wanted to do because the term selfie didn't exist yet. "Can I take a picture of us together, but, you know the kind where someone holds the camera out like this, and the picture is just two big faces?"... Continue Reading →
We packed your bag today. I told you the stories of when I went to where you are going now. The deep, dark woods of life. I told you about the night I got cold and hungry and found a bears' house to sleep. About the time your uncle and I left breadcrumbs to the... Continue Reading →
“I may yet be worthy of the name of woman, in the purist and noblest sense. Yes, I will be if resolution and perseverance can accomplish anything.” Alice Marshall Finch, May 1866 This is a line from my great-great grandmother’s journal. She was 18 or 19 when she wrote this and living near Richmond, Virginia.... Continue Reading →
It is the Baha'i month of Words, or Kalimat. I was pondering what I've done this month to be a reflection of the Word of God, the creative impetus of all life. I've been ingesting Words as I prepare for the play at the Mesquite Community Theatre, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned... Continue Reading →
C. Dawn McCallum 