Roll Call

Dear Twite, May I call you by your first name or is there another you might prefer? Please forgive the intrusion, but my granddaughter, Meredith, has been hovering. From what I can gather, she is cooking up something with your granddaughter. Have you heard from Jojo recently? Some days, Meredith tries so hard to get … Continue reading "LET’s"

Among other things, I journey with a group of folks moving through a two-year fellowship program that I shape and steward. For the second of six COVID-calibrated weekend-long gatherings, participants were invited to come back for bits and pieces, sticks and stones, learning and unlearning—and for one another. From people to place to purpose to … Continue reading "Labor(s) of Love"

I live in a small town in rural Madison County, North Carolina. My husband was born and raised two counties to our north before his homesteading parents traded their back-to-the-land hillside for nearby Asheville’s job market and indoor plumbing. North Carolina born and raised, my husband feels at home here in Mars Hill. While I … Continue reading "There’s No Place Like Home"

I once spent the greater part of a long weekend on a mountainside with a group of strangers. Our gathering served as introduction to a two-year experiment in human relations with a storied history, complicated present, and uncertain future. We couldn’t have known at the time what our journey together would hold. The deep contradictions … Continue reading "Yours, Mine, Ours"

A few weeks ago, I missed the one-year anniversary of a surgery that both saved and changed my life. I’m not sure what it means that the day passed me by unawares. Some reckonings must happen on their own timeline. There is much to say about those who came alongside during a season of compounding … Continue reading "Yahrzeit Recitation"

And then one day, it was time. Not necessarily right or perfect, but simply time itself. Hunkering down at home during COVID-19’s foreseeable future, my husband and I figured this could be the perfect season to introduce a new dog into the family. We decided long ago that our lives were built for four-legged expansion … Continue reading "Dog meet Dog"

I wonder about forbidden things – people and places, too. So much so that I wrote a dissertation about what it might mean to uncover the unspeakable in the stories we love to tell. My doctoral work took up where my masters degree in Appalachian Studies left off. That degree was a thinly veiled excuse … Continue reading "(N)ever Appalachia"

This summer was not the first time my body has thought about killing me. Almost twenty years ago, I woke up in an ambulance on Christmas Eve to learn of the seizure that had roused everyone in our household but me. An otherwise healthy college student with one semester under my belt, my brain showed … Continue reading "More and Less"

My grandfather has been farming for most of his life. At 93, he grows a huge garden in the Atlanta suburbs my parents call home. In fact, when we moved him from rural Arkansas to the big city, one of the first things my grandfather did was break ground for a garden. Before unpacking, my … Continue reading "To Make a Garden Grow"

Barbara owns a Yoga studio in the North Carolina mountains where I found my way into a body and practice that still takes this recovering Baptist by surprise. A deep listener with quiet instincts, Barbara has a knack for sharing the right book at the right time. When she learned that an upcoming pilgrimage would … Continue reading "Namaste, Amen"