I didn’t know Sheri very long or very well. But it was long and well enough to know she was a very special lady. We first met when I joined our neighborhood book club. At the first meeting I attended, we chatted quite a bit before the book discussion got going, and talked as much about writing as we did about reading. Sheri was an active member of the Georgia Writers Museum, which I was interested in but hadn’t been to yet. Our book club [...]
“The day was filled with miracle after miracle.” That’s what my friend Tabitha told me on the phone the other day. She was calling from Uganda, where she’s doing some prep and planning for the work we’ll do when she and I – along with several others – go back in a few months. For those who aren’t familiar with my work or my story, Tabitha and I have been on a mission ever since she read an article in a Ugandan newspaper about a [...]
I was getting ready for 5 o’clock Mass last Saturday when the phone rang. It was one of our neighbors. “I know this is short notice,” she said, “but a friend and I are going to a concert tonight by the Morehouse College Glee Club. I have an extra ticket, and was wondering if you’d like to go.” The wheels started spinning as I processed the timetable. My husband and I usually go to Mass on Saturday afternoon, but if we have other plans, or [...]
Super Bowl LII is now history. We watched the game with some neighbors, and I freely admit that I enjoy watching the game as much – if not more – for the commercials as for the game itself. Unless, of course, my beloved Chicago Bears are playing, which has happened just twice in my lifetime. We all agreed that we were disappointed with the commercials this year. “It seems like they’re trying too hard,” one of the neighbors said. We all agreed with that, too. [...]
I had lunch yesterday with a friend from my church. It was actually a get-to-know-you-better meeting, as we’ve crossed paths a number of times at different events and activities, and realized that we have many interests and values in common. Even from brief conversations and from tidbits and snippets of information we’ve shared, we knew we wanted to learn more about each other. It was a lovely lunch, the kind where it takes a while to order because you start talking right away and find [...]
“It’s a good thing y’all are Yankees,” he told us, “’cause you’re way more organized than we are.” For the record, there were five of us at the meeting. One was a New Jersey native, one was a Midwesterner (that’s me, and you will never find my picture in the dictionary next to the word “organized”), and three were born-and-raised-in-the-South Georgians. Everyone laughed, and no one took offense at the comment. And that felt good. Not only do discussions and debates these days seem to [...]
I had a very upsetting dream last night, having to do with my upcoming trip to Uganda. In the dream, I was carpooling to the airport with my friend from Uganda and two others who were going with us. Never mind that I live in Georgia and the others are all in Minnesota. At some point, I thought about my passport, which I had put in my suitcase as soon as I started packing, so I would be sure not to forget it. But I [...]
Like many people, I watched the Golden Globe Awards last Sunday night, and was blown away by Oprah Winfrey’s speech as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement. It was inspiring, empowering, and it made me feel as though, yes, a new day is dawning, and the world is about to change for the better. At no point did it occur to me, however, that this was a political speech, or the launch of a political career for Oprah. That changed the [...]
I’m one of those people who still makes New Year’s Resolutions, and they’ve always been the subject of one of my columns each year – a practice I plan to continue with my blog. When I sat down to write this morning, I was all set to write about my resolution to deal with “unfinished business” – projects started but not completed, unanswered email, and some boxes and bins that still haven’t been unpacked from our move. But then I got a phone call from [...]