Imagine being a thirty-something who’d spent your entire life living a nomadic existence in the desert. You’d played on the hard-baked sand as a child. You’d nursed your babies in a tent pitched next to a lone barren tree. The repetition of a lifetime manna-diet mirrored the bleached, unchanging environment in which you’d laughed, loved,…

“I’m sorry, but there’s no room for you in the program here,” my advisor looked up from a stack of papers centered on the desk in front of her. “If you’re convinced you want to pursue this teaching certification, there are other colleges you might consider if you’re willing to transfer out of state.” I…

When we first moved to Wisconsin in 1995, we had no idea how deep the pull of “up north” had on the psyche of the entire state. People didn’t have to say the name of a place. They’d just get a misty look in their eyes and say things like “We’re going up north this…

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a book review. I’m typically a blazing-fast reader, and finished one of the two books I’ll be reviewing today in a couple of nights. But N.D. Wilson’s Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl forced me to suspend my Evelyn Wood-style speed-reading habits in favor of the kind of slow savor…

I admit it. I love the sight of school supplies making their yearly center-stage appearance. Blank pages and unsharpened pencils await their call to duty for everything from the circle-stick-hook of a wobbly first ABC on through spelling tests, crush notes, algebra equations and first-day essays that always begin, “I spent my summer vacation…” School…

Though I felt like I washed ashore schlepping my meager possessions and broken heart on the door step of our church a couple of years ago, more refugee than pilgrim, I am hardly alone. “One of the more interesting of many religious movements taking place in this country today is the quiet movement of many…