poems
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For months, I’ve carried the call of the Sandhill Cranes in my heart. They were passing over my home on an early Saturday morning as I was leaving to proctor the SATs at my high school. It was a divine interruption – a hard stop on the feverish rush of modern life. Since then, I’ve
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Over the summer, we experienced a substantial lack of rain. Now this isn’t England, but Grove City usually has its share of rainy days. We savor the sunny ones as they seem to be as rare as European White Truffles. And yet, I was far too busy to notice. As the summer came to a
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As summer’s curtain drops and the stage resets for another academic year, I return to my only camping excursion in late June with my second youngest son. We gathered with a group of friends and fathers to camp and kayak. The food and fellowship were wonderful and our time on the Allegheny River, including stops
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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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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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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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Ever since I listened to Malcolm Guite’s YouTube post on November 23rd, 2024, I’ve been pondering what he shared about music and silence and noise as inspired by Sophie Jones. (You should listen to BOTH presentations!) For me, it immediately inspired the thought, “Wouldn’t that make for a great villanelle!” Of course, the concept of
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October ended in melancholy. I had been entertaining depression for at least a week, allowing him to raid my cupboards, sleep in my bed, run my life, and steal from my bank account. Melancholy, or depression, may be associated with the color blue, but I was running in the red in terms of hope and
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Modern miracles exist; we’ve just become too numb to recognize them. Whether or not you profess faith, the miracle of conception remains a scientific fact. To read about all the conditions necessary for conception to take place successfully and then all the steps in the process leading up to birth astounds me. As so many
the deepening ground 