"Why do you keep coming back?" Sandra asked as we walked to the chapel."To the Festival?" "Yes, why do you come back time after time?"I said something about the content, maybe. I actually don't remember what I told Sandra, but I kept thinking about her question. … [Read more...]
Curiosity Journal: April 18, 2012
Each Wednesday (or thereabouts) I’ve been recording a Curiosity Journal to recap the previous week using these tag words: reading, playing, learning, reacting and writing.:::ReadingAs I mentioned on Tuesday, the Mother Letters e-book is now on sale. … [Read more...]
Festival of Faith & Writing 2010: Writing Advice and Making an Impression
Memories of the Festival of Faith & Writing are beginning to dim, and you're probably losing interest in my April literary adventure.But before memories fade altogether, I thought I'd share the last of my notes from a panel discussion featuring Luci Shaw, James Schaap, and Robert Siegel (and no, he is not Robert Siegel, co-host of NPR's "All Things Considered; this is … [Read more...]
Festival of Faith & Writing 2010: Friday Highlights
The Festival is over. I've returned home to laundry and lunches. I've also typed e-mails with numerous typos due to the blur of fatigue. Dare I continue the story even though the fun is fading into quotidian reality? I'll try...let's see how it goes.After Eugene Peterson's talk on Friday, my anonymous friend headed off to visit a friend while Leslie Leyland Fields and I … [Read more...]
Festival of Faith & Writing 2010: More Fun
Friday morning, Leslie Leyland Fields and I made plans to connect during the morning coffee hour. She was running a little late, so as I stood around the refreshment area, I spotted Keri Wyatt Kent. I explained that I'm chronicling my time at the Festival in photos, so she kindly posed with me.She said she was here with some writer friends. Late Friday night I encountered … [Read more...]
Festival of Faith & Writing: Festival Fun
Some random documentation of my trip to the Festival of Faith & Writing begins with this evidence of my crossing the state line.Calvin College's campus is colorful.Ran into my friend Stacy Morgan the very first thing. I registered, slipped my name tag on, set my bag down next to a chair, flipped through the packet, looked up and saw Stacy sitting on the couch next to … [Read more...]
Final Festival Report: Katherine Paterson on Beauty
One major revelation I walked away with from the Festival is my need to improve my note-taking skills. I have only sparse, sketchy sentence fragments to work with. Normally I record interviews and messages so that I can review them later, but the organizers didn't allow it. So my final notes are from Katherine Paterson's closing session. She said a few things that stood … [Read more...]
Connections and Conclusions
As I stepped into the room where Phyllis Tickle was speaking, our eyes met and, in her words later, "I jumped! Did you see me jump?" She remembered. She remembered the transatlantic flight we shared in 2005, and the descent that led to my child's airsickness. She remembered how my husband and I mopped up vomit as the plane landed. She remembered handing me a paper … [Read more...]
Festival Friends
I rode up with a friend of mine, but she wasn't attending the festival. She's visiting her sister here in Grand Rapids. Another friend of hers was going to be at the festival, but I'd never met the friend of my friend.What I'm trying to say is that I came alone.And a mom of four doesn't go places alone very often.So as I rode the shuttle bus from the hotel to the college … [Read more...]
