February 2012
4 posts
another feminine failure
For a long while, I was not friends with many girls. I was the one that hid behind the “I am just better friends with guys,” phrase. My primary reason for this was probably a combination of intimidation and jealousy of other girls. Obviously, I mistakenly thought, that no boy would ever see me if I hung out with other girls, especially really pretty ones.
So for years, I shirked...
To Have and To Hold →
It might really be that the wedding day, as a blessing, is a chance to bless the ones you love with what you can give, and [we] have been working to figure out what that looks like. But we are being asked to give more than a party. We are being asked to give ourselves, to give our hearts and lives to the work of the life that calls us together.
-Alison Backous, for The Curator Magazine
Read...
valentine pride
I am an unabashed Valentine’s Day fan. Not for the kitch, nor for the sweets. Just for the celebration of all things love.
And this year, Chris and I aren’t really “doing anything” for the holiday, but it doesn’t mean I’m not celebrating in my own personal way, gripping and cradling my thankfulness for him and for everyone else who loves us individually and...
January 2012
4 posts
December 2011
6 posts
The Elements of Style
Recently, I’ve been really getting into the Elements of Style. Unfortunately, for my personal cool potential, I enjoy it entirely too much. I think this purse-sized book is an entertaining and challenging companion. So, yes, I am keeping it in my purse. And no, no shame here.
I get tidbits like this gem:
8. Avoid the use of qualifiers. Rather, very, little, pretty- these are the leeches...
International Arts Movement: 2012 Readers Guild →
From my limited perspective, IAM hits it out of the park again for the new year’s picks for the Reader’s Guild. When you count among the ranks the likes of Berry, O’Connor, Eliot, Bryson- I trust you.
Its high time this group moseys down to Richmondtown. I probably don’t have time for it, but daggon, do I wish I do.
Presence // Anticipation
Advent this year, feels more real for some (probably convicting) reason.
We wait like Mary in the pained anticipation of this birth.
If we can find it, or hear it, there is a groan in our bellies for deliverance, something deep within us is about to be born. So we wait, calming the fluttering corners of our lives, iron the creases from our skirts, tap our tose on the tiles. Preparing our homes...
November 2011
3 posts
Thoughts on the Newly-Engaged State
First, holy sh** that just happened. (Profanity intended, its that serious)
Then, you can settle into the state of transition, which really means you cannot settle at all. Bring in tension, conflict of interest, and a changing of loyalties.
Also, bring in bliss, incandescence and comfort.
Also, feel small. Because the wedding industry is big- yes. But also feel small because marriage is huge....
Learning to Listen to Music | The Musical Ethos of... →
Another piece on The Listening Room. This time for all the Richmond fools who just don’t find the time to attend.
Sorry I’m not sorry.
October 2011
5 posts
Guest Posting on Restorative Justice 101 →
I had the fortuitous opportunity to Guest Post for my friend and fellow purveyor of truth and words, Nicole Unice, today.
Calling her a good friend is as much of an honor as writing for her is. Of course, I’m writing on justice, the restorative kind (my favorite kind). Of course, of course.
But it’s a crash-course in (the best) alternative to our retributive and punitive criminal...
“I had entered, as I now clearly saw, upon the way of love and it changed...”
– Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow, in the chapter ‘The Way of Love.’
You would be hard-pressed to find a more profound chapter of fiction in all the libraries of all the world.
the next step
Life is happening- in a big way all around me and within me and without me.
To experience life within community, oftentimes means feeling the same heights and depths as those around you. I know I’ve cried for friends, and danced in their revelry. I did it yesterday actually.
But this week, I’ve also felt others doing these things for me. It is a powerfully humbling experience- to be...
“The reader, viewer, listener, usually grossly underestimates his importance. If...”
– madeleine l’engle, walking on water
a book-gift from a bookish-friend. a challenging, insightful and very encouraging (read: heart-lifting) read.
September 2011
6 posts
in memoriam
Troy Davis was killed last night.
I don’t want to use this space to pose an argument, you all probably know where I stand by now. All I want to say is that yesterday, I kept seeing my dear Lord crying. Hovering over me all day, crying and crying.
And I kept hearing His voice, all day, in my own angst against the failing justice of our nation-
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, ...
“For me writing is like breathing. I could not live without breathing and I could...”
– Pablo Neruda, in the Paris Review
“life’s too short for turkey bacon.”
– my always-wise, ever-awesome, very serious mother.
this quippy quote is seconded only by her best friend who once shared with me, straight faced and earnest, “my favorite thing in life is sitting and drinking” (sigh, pause) “with friends, of course.”
ladies, i agree.
August 2011
6 posts
the pipeline means nothing
I have lots of things “in the pipeline.” Which is the catch-all phrase for: nothing to show you or myself for what I’ve been doing. Nothing to really be proud of, quite yet. Nothing to have me feel like I haven’t been completely wasting my time. I have very much been enjoying the process. Well, the beginning of the process. I am losing on the refining side of things. I...
The Listening Room s. II v. IX →
I am trying to loosen my grasp on my writing.
Ergggg.
But really. Sometimes, each solitary word is important, nay crucial, to the composition of a piece. Othertimes, a stream of consciousness founded upon a background of proper grammar and syntax and vocabulary will do just fine.
Again, erggggg. I wrote for last month’s Listening Room, and really really tried to not take my self or the...
July 2011
10 posts
The Richmond Scene: Mixtape 11 →
The Second Annual local compilation compiled by The Richmond Scene is out! And its free! And there is a new, unreleased Homemade Knives song (!!!). All of my favorite things, in one beautiful beautiful package.
If you don’t normally run into Mr. Richmond Scene himself, who most likely will be carrying them until he runs out, they can be found at various record shops around the city. Or you...
“The isolated imagination is easily corrupted by theory;
but the writer inside...”
– Flannery O’Connor in her essay The Regional Writer
[Flannery’s commentary on the nature, purpose, depth, & geography of writing is astounding. Highly recommend her Mystery & Manners to all other writers or lovers of the written word.]
Feminine Failure →
I’m up on the Curator again. This time, ranting about blogs and these strange new expectations they put on my gender to be something we just cannot be.
Writing this was a journey. I spoke to so many women, young and old and inbetween, all who felt this pressure or similiar pressure or a pressure altogether different but that spawned the same reaction.
This is just but one sliver of the...
grateful / greatful
Sometimes it is good for me to just be thankful. I wish I could pinch myself every time I complained. Funny enough though, when someone corrects me I always immediately think I’m justified for my whining & moaning. Let me tell myself now, in front of my vast vast readership (kidding, completely), that 99.98% of the time it is not necessary, justified or warranted.
Things to be grateful...
“Has she completely given up on country radio?
“Yes,” [Emmylou]...”
– Emmylou Harris, as told in this months Garden & Gun.
She goes on to say that now “she’s placing her bets on younger singer-songwriters like Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and Patty Griffin.” Of course.
“What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce.”
– Mark Twain, via Half The Sky
Been spendin’ lots of time thinkin’, writing’, editin’ about women, feminism, equality, inadequecy, domesticity and empowerment recently. And whew. I can barely handle it all.
There is indeed something sacred about femininity, just as there is...
Wheeling & Dealing & Capital Punishment
I read today that Virginia will probably be executing an inmate in the very near future using an uncontrolled substance. An Anesthesiology Professor at Harvard recently claimed that, so far, criminals subjected to this drug have suffered greatly.
The Danish man behind this chemical called Pentobarbital is asking for signed releases of those acquiring the drug, swearing that they will not sell...
June 2011
7 posts
here again
I have all sorts of patterns, for the good or the bad. Socially, physically, emotionally, my life undulates like rhythmic waves of patterns. Yet always seeming to catch me where I left it, walking this spiraling, circling path.
“I find myself here again,” I say, again. “Eating too much, not returning phone calls, writing instead of running, passivity instead of...
Casting Shadows
Creativity is a difficult process- I get that.
Creativity take discipline, and creative displays take vulnerability. (Duh.)
It is indeed one of the highest forms your time can take- to endeavor to create, and then to place your work (your self, your creation) on the mantel for all to see, critique, laud.
And for as high of a form creation is, how low of a form is mimicking? How low of a form is...
living & loving in RVA
There are many people I interact with (even if only tangentially) who are not fans of Richmond. People who live here, work here, who typically have moved back here after college.
I don’t even try to bite my tongue anymore. I just tell them they are missing out, then probably commence some sort of roll of the eyes, and flick of the wrist.
This week is a particularly great week for the...