by Stephanie Reeves | Jan 6, 2024 | Writing
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2024. There’s going to be some changes around here starting next month as we move to Substack and become The Redbud Hyphen. Our guild president, Dorina Lazo-Gilmore Young will be telling you more about that soon. Meanwhile, we want to...
by Katelyn Jane Dixon | Jan 6, 2024 | Spiritual Growth
My heart in hiding stirred for a bird. —Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Windhover” It’s so predictable it’s almost funny. Almost. Every year, like clockwork, the Pacific Northwest changes from a sun-saturated wonderland of fragrant evergreens and sparkling sapphire waters...
by Mabel Ninan | Jan 6, 2024 | Faith and Culture
What do you do? When I say I’m a writer, I see a confused or blank expression come over some people’s faces before they reply, “Nice!” “Hmm. OK,” or “That’s great!” The curious folks follow up with, “What do you write about?” I tell them I write faith-based...
by Michelle Stiffler | Jan 6, 2024 | Literature
Eugene Peterson’s Run With the Horses found me the summer of 2021, a few weeks after an emotional meltdown on the shores of the Florida Keys. Our family vacation had been too long and too full. Tension was high and being the family thermostat, I was over it. The sun...
by Jennifer Kinard | Jan 6, 2024 | Literature
Laura Ingalls Wilder was the first writer I ever befriended. At night, our beautiful, young mothers tucked us both into bed, side by side with our older sisters. As I listened to my mother read Little House in the Big Woods, Laura would listen to her pa on his fiddle....
by Dorothy Greco | Jan 6, 2024 | Faith and Culture
The Earth is home to approximately 8 billion unique human beings, an estimated 320,000 plant species, and 20 quintillion animals (20 billion billion). The sheer diversity of life on the Earth is staggering. From the smallest frog in the world (measuring .27 inches),...
by Keren Dibbens Wyatt | Jan 6, 2024 | Spiritual Growth
I am sick, isolated, feeling hopeless. The world tells me I am unwanted, unloved, worse; unneeded. That I am useless, a drain on society’s resources, on my caring husband’s time. A waste of space and breath. It does not say these things out loud or in full, but...
by Michele Morin | Jan 6, 2024 | Lifestyle
“Do you always read to your kids like that?” she queried. My friend was referring to my rendition of a Dr. Seuss classic delivered at tongue-twister speed from a rocking chair in the church nursery: “Would you like them in a house? Would you like them with a mouse?...
by Julie Pray Walton | Jan 6, 2024 | Lifestyle
We live on a sand dune high above Lake Michigan. Over time, the landscape changes entirely, eroded and caressed by calm and storm alike. Mostly rugged, sometimes docile, its environment is never static, always blowing, moving, and changing in westerly gales that send...
by Stephanie Reeves | Nov 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
Dear Reader, As we’re winding down 2023 (can you believe it?) many people like to look back on the last year and list things that brought them joy and things they need to work on. So I thought I’d do a bit of that with you as we cover the topic of “joy” in this...
by Maggie W. Rowe | Nov 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
You’ve probably sung these famous words penned by Isaac Watts countless times: Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King. This beloved carol begins on a D note and seven words later, descends a full octave before the music begins to rise again....
by Lindsay Banton | Nov 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
I think it’s safe to say that most people assume joy is found in the big, exciting moments. And while I don’t think they’re entirely wrong, I don’t think they’re entirely right either. Yes, those giant events like weddings, grand vacations, or successful book launches...
by Margaret Philbrick | Nov 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
We often dumb down joy to equal happiness. But when the question, “What brought you joy today?” surfaces at the dinner table, the answer requires a deeper consideration. Perhaps we don’t think much about joy when we live in an affluent culture where so many things are...
by Joylanda Jamison | Nov 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
Who can honestly say that they enjoy being out of control? There’s no joy when fear grips your heart and anxious thoughts go spiraling out of control. But there is joy in realizing that God can intervene in every situation, including the ones beyond our ability to...
