-
Anxiety of Influence
“What was your most original thought from your talk?” I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This means, among other things, that I am sometimes asked to give a talk, or a 5-10 minute sermon/ speech about one particular gospel topic. I was recently asked to speak about self-reliance…
-
My Patients Believe… What?
If there’s one thing that people identify with the Middle East, it’s conflict. A long history of wars and territorial disputes identify the war-torn countries. In each instance of war, persons and families flee to the relative safety of other nations. These refugees often carry little with them but their traditions, religions, and their cultural…
-
Goose Girl
It was time to leave the middle school. Large yellow buses were waiting for the seats to fill up and teachers were collecting the papers they would take home to read and grade. Masses of children and adults swarmed the front, either entering buses or talking with friends until the last moment, adults supervising their…
-
Destiny
He called it destiny. We were partnered up in class to do a video project. We worked well together. I took charge and he followed through. I felt like Spring, suddenly growing up. Destiny. Like in any chick-flick, after our meetcute, we flirted, dated, met the parents, endured our own drama and fights, got married,…
-
Growth
Growth, Chattering squirrels, Acorn-stuffed burrows: Plenty. Miles high, branches Fighting others for light, for space Growing green lines Encroaching Old oak taking a long time to say it’s old And things have changed. Bemused children Disbelieve A feast of flora and fauna Cacophony of cackles Orange and yellow Crinkling Laughter deepens Families scatter Slow winter…
-
Welcome to the Adventure
Success– we all want it, but what does it take to succeed, and what does success even mean? I think that success is finishing an adventure after you start one. It means having a goal in mind and meeting it, like the check mark on a to-do list. So, success depends on who we want…
-
The Weirdness of the English language 1: Possessive Apostrophes
Let’s be honest: the English language doesn’t make a lot of sense most of the time. Every rule has exceptions and we have irregular verbs coming out of our ears. We could spend hours talking about pronunciation alone. In fact, Gerard Nolst Trenite wrote a rather long poem about the subject. My favorite class in…
Word Nerd Writing:
A Collection of Unrelated Stories, Musings, and Other Miscellanea
Word Nerd Writing 