Fears, Fin Whales, and Friendships
• Day T W O • Harvester Island Writers Workshop Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022 Writing camp starts today at Harvester Island, the Fields’ family’s commercial salmon fishing operation. Leslie calls it the “Kingdom of Clean Enough.” We haven’t tested her theory yet. We’ll ease into the morning with lattés, foot massages, and soft music to nurture our
Falling in Love with Nouns and Verbs
• Day O N E • Harvester Island Writers Workshop Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022 It’s noon. A spit-polished group of strangers pack tightly into the living room of Leslie Leyland Fields, our host and writing instructor for the Harvester Island Writers’ Workshop. She’s in my Mount Rushmore of writers. I try to stay chill and not to
For the One Who Wants to Live Again
I love that Jesus held her hand before he healed her. The little girl in Mark 5—the one who died while Jesus stopped to heal someone else—felt the Healer’s hand before she got her healing. Scripture says she was already dead so what did it matter? Maybe Jesus aimed His tenderness at her parents—her dad
Feeling Worthless? Time to Restore Factory Settings.
I wonder if anyone feels worthless today. Worth less at 50 than at 30. Worth less single than married. Worth less without the job title than with it. Worth. Less. If you’d like a rah-rah, straighten-your-crown soundbite, keep surfing the Internet, you’ll find it somewhere. But If you’d like an unabated truth bomb that transforms
The Terrifying Land of Coulda Woulda Shoulda
Today is “Toss Away the ‘Could Haves’ and ‘Should Haves’ Day. In other words, it’s Laurie Davies Day. I kid, but kind of not really. Sometimes I feel like I am where leads go to die. Then other times, I see that I wasn’t ready for the leads that “died.” Parts of Laurie had to
How to Survive the Family Blame Game
Accusation. If you’ve been falsely accused, that very word leads to a jarring, churning pit-in-the-stomach place. Its roots mean “toward” and “lawsuit.” It’s a guilty-until-proven innocent word. If we’re guilty, accusation is the moment of truth. If we’re innocent, accusation is the truth of the moment. Scripture captures this idea. “The first to speak in