Two incidents this week have me thinking about the importance of forgiveness—not just forgiveness of others, but forgiveness of ourselves as well. It’s an important lesson for any teacher to learn—and believe me, we learn it again and again and again—the lesson of how to get past one’s own mistakes and shortcomings. We want to…

My wife and I are moving to a new home this week, so I may be off the grid for a short while. I’ve moved a number of times in my life, and each time I’m reminded of how important it is for us to adjust our vantage point from time to time. Writers have…

The salesman said it would take us about thirty-five minutes to put the desk together, so this morning my wife and I did our signature pinky swear as we united and readied to face those fearful words, “Assembly Required.” Six hours later, we were frazzled, weary, snippy, hungry and by-God fed up with the task…

I love this time of year, these early days of spring. I particularly love seeing daffodils in bloom. We had a bed of them in the fence row along the side of our farmhouse, a house that now has fallen in on itself and gone to ruin. Those daffodils are still there, though, and will…

I’ve had a request to do a blog post about how to treat others fairly when writing memoir. It’s a challenge we all come up against, especially when we write about people who may have hurt us in various ways. Often these people are family members, and sometimes they’re still alive and our relationships with…

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make a new blog post last week. I was in intensive care at the time with a critically low sodium level and Influenza A. As with all experiences we’d rather not have, there were some bright spots, moments that were instructive, not only for the person I am, but…

When I first arrived at the annual Associated Writing Programs conference last week, I went in search of registration. I had no idea where it was or how I was going to get there. If I hadn’t asked more than a few folks for directions, I could have spent a good deal of time wandering…

Here we are in early February, a time known as mid-winter, or so I learned from a column in this morning’s Columbus Dispatch. This same article told me that the old-timers had a saying: “Have half your wood and half your hay, and you’ll come safely through to May.” The lesson is don’t waste all…

Eudora Welty’s story, “Why I Live at the P.O.” opens like this: I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy, and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella Rondo just separated from her husband and came back home again. Mr. Whittaker! Of course I went with Mr. Whitaker first, when he first appeared here in China…