v. anastasi
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I’ve come back to Mary Oliver after she popped up in the book I’m reading for enjoyment between preparing for school and repairing our fleet of cars! The book is Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (I know: enjoyment?), and Mary Oliver shows up on page 104. Of course, this sent…
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For the first time in nearly ten years, I’ll be back in local coffeehouses playing music with my sons — except now it’s the next generation! Shortly after I released At the In Between in 2012, I began “touring” with my two eldest sons. We played wineries, coffee shops, and farmer’s markets and made many…
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Having not posted anything by Mary Oliver in awhile, I wondered if she had any poetry related to Independence Day. A quick online search led me to a post on “Improvised Life: A Treasury of Inspiring Ideas.” Allegedly, a poem my wife has loved for years, first read in Mary Oliver’s Why I Wake Early,…
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Last week we returned to St. Paul, Minnesota for the national speech and debate competition hosted at the University of Northwestern. While there, I got to spend some quiet time on the dual bench glider swings on the university’s small island, known for its Island Chapel (follow the link beneath the photograph for the chapel’s…
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The end approaches. We’ve moved past counting the days; now we’re counting the hours. Another school year, my twenty-fifth to be exact, comes to a close. In the heat of wrapping up the year and managing life outside of the classroom, my wife (at my son, Theo’s leading) sent me the following poem. Balancing the…
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As the school year winds down, time to be creative grows like the lengthening Spring days! However, I was not expecting to have a creative moment when I stepped into my colleague’s classroom to observe her Contemporary Literature and Creative Writing class right after lunch. I drifted to the back of the room full of…
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We’ve created a false dilemma (aka the either-or fallacy): “Either you remain a child or you become an adult.” And in a time where adultescence has spread like an infectious disease, it seems fitting that we raise high the banner of adulthood and call these basement-dwelling game-playing job-quitting children into the responsibilities and expectations that…
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On Valentine’s Day I became a grandfather. Our first grandson! My wife was blessed to be there to prepare for and help with the delivery, as well as provide extra support for the first week of Liam’s life. By late spring, I will be a grandfather twice over when we welcome our second grandson into…
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When they closed the schools for two days due to the extreme cold that dropped temperatures below -10 degrees Fahrenheit (without the wind chill), I knew the creek would freeze. And just as expected, I knew my ten-year-old would want to venture out onto the frozen waters. It had been a long day at work…
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Tonight I came home from work to the day-to-day needs that swarm me almost as soon as I open my car door. The younger boys want to head to Walmart; my middle son’s basketball practice begins at 5:30; my wife and daughter have their book group meeting this evening, so we need to order pizza…
the deepening ground 