By U.S. State
By Country
Home of the Brave
by Stephen Mulder | May 31, 2015 | Placeless
“The Star Spangled Banner” is frequently a painful listen. At an octave and a half, the range is just a bit too wide to be comfortable for a typical singer.
Liberal Arts for the Calvin Crowd
by Mary Margaret Healy | May 30, 2015 | Placeless
This movie, and this blog, could be a testament to how much this all hurts: life, and time, and how they just refuse to stop moving on. We all have a time we’re trying to get to.
Unknown Home
by Sarah Fennema | May 29, 2015 | New Zealand
My life is just as real, just as full, and just as much mine as it ever has been and ever will be. I may not know what it will look like in a year, but I know that God knows.
Reasonable Rebekah
by Bekah (Williamson) Medendorp | May 28, 2015 | South Carolina
I am a 5’6” (and ¼”) self-contained universe bumping against the fringes of being-hood. There is no purpose in questioning a slab of reflection for answers only found beyond it.
ALL CAPS Eden
by Brad Zwiers | May 27, 2015 | Placeless
I have a tattered, taped-up copy of East of Eden that I’ve read somewhere around ten to twelve times. Whenever people ask me my favorite book, I’m quick and decisive.
A Web of Impossible Politics
by Griffin Jackson | May 26, 2015 | Placeless
We should vote and be thankful that we can, but we also need to ask: how can I regain a love of politics when politicians represent parties instead of people?
Belonging
by Greg Kim | May 25, 2015 | Placeless
What’s left if and when we stubbornly hold onto a strictly individualistic notion of our identity, expression, and self? I think we risk ending up alone.
Dear Class of 2018
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | May 24, 2015 | Placeless
During the first week of school, not a single one of you would laugh at my jokes. Now, some of you kind of do, probably just because you’re trying to be encouraging and nice.
Dreaming of Church
by Michael Kelly | May 23, 2015 | Massachusetts
When I moved to Boston, I had a dream about the church I would attend. I would get there by public transportation, because I like to believe that God is green.
Resurrection Music
by Robert Zandstra | May 22, 2015 | Placeless
One way I feel Easter season’s lack of spiritual resources is in the lack of church music about the resurrection life to come, what we are “practicing” for.
Netherland: A Review
by Andrew Orlebeke | May 21, 2015 | New York
Chuck is, for O’Neill, an incarnation of New York itself: brash, quick-talking, big-dreaming, and under the surface, deeply flawed. Even his self-proclaimed motto sounds gimmicky.
The Great Tassel Shift
by Gabe Gunnink | May 20, 2015 | Placeless
Immediately, I sprinted to the finish and found my athlete crumpled like a pop can, every iota of energy spent. I haven’t felt happy or proud like I did in that moment for years.
An Ode to Adapters
by Mary Margaret Healy | May 19, 2015 | Placeless
Such a sentence reminds the world that everything is a living art, every idea can be made new again, every stone can have the moss pulled off and be rolled back down a hill.
Mother’s Day
by Matt & Laura Hubers | May 18, 2015 | Placeless
To be honest, I doubt that feeling will ever go away, because (I have to take a deep breath before I even type this): I’m going to be a mother for the whole rest of the my life.
Dermacentor variabilis
by Geneva Langeland | May 17, 2015 | Kalamazoo, Michigan
Two more ticks joined the swimmer in the bowl. We flicked an intruder into an empty pasta sauce container and scrawled “Tick Jar” across the glass in Sharpie.
Millie and Me, and David
by Andrew Knot | May 16, 2015 | Placeless
What I lack in affection for Millie is doubly manifest in the 6’2” 230 pound frame of my younger brother, David. His love for her would be the stuff of a tear-jerking motion picture.
Current Events
by Cassie Westrate | May 15, 2015 | Placeless
The stories from history seem recycled: different characters, sometimes different conflicts, but always the same plot. And I know that writing these words doesn’t go far enough.
Love Like Grief
by Will Montei | May 14, 2015 | Placeless
I think in each of us there’s a deep well with love like water at the bottom, but if only the crawl down wasn’t so dark and our hands could carry more.
The Kids Are Alright
by Catherine Kramer | May 13, 2015 | Grand Rapids, Massachusetts
The clever phrasings, the lilting harmonies, the bone-soaking sadness, the hard-earned joy—it fills me up with the subtle satisfaction of uncertainty.
Faking It
by Abby Zwart | May 12, 2015 | Placeless
Faking it, I would argue, is actually the only way we’ll make it anywhere. So few of us are born with natural, shining pearls of talent that don’t need refinement.
Nonessential Issues
by Elaine Schnabel | May 11, 2015 | Placeless
It is for this reason a man can be saved by faith through works. It is a great mystery. It is a still greater mystery to me why a pastor’s theology is ever given priority over its people.
Stroopwaffel Pride and Prejudice
by Katie Van Zanen | May 10, 2015 | Netherlands
I’ve been consuming an odd sort of patriotism along with my stroop waffels and hagel. Maybe it’s just that the Netherlands makes sense to me in the way that Egypt does not.
Quitting
by Bart Tocci | May 9, 2015 | Placeless
Quitting, when other people are involved, is extremely difficult for me because I like to make people happy. Quitting invariably means that I’m not making someone happy.
Making Sense of the Senseless
by Paul Menn | May 8, 2015 | Wisconsin
Hearing about a shooting that took place ten minutes from where I grew up. Learning sketchy details as they came in. Worrying if I knew anyone involved.
My Children
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | May 7, 2015 | Placeless
In September, I assigned a five-page fictional short story and Elinor took it upon herself to write a twenty-five-page story about a teenage girl named Sky who owns a mall.
Lucky
by Josh deLacy | May 6, 2015 | Washington
One day of climbing and two nights of camping and an eternity of driving down this endless, evening road when I rounded a turn and my headlights found a hitchhiker.
It looked like a woman.
Outside Looking In
by Alissa Anderson | May 5, 2015 | Placeless
I think what fascinates me about windows is the same thing that’s always drawn me to books—all the stories and worlds that are playing out in addition to my own.
Cat Person
by Ben Rietema | May 4, 2015 | New Zealand
I looked down at Winston (or the other one), who still looked up at me pleadingly. He hadn’t moved an inch, even though there were about fifteen other willing petters around.
El Sonido de la Milonga
by Sabrina Lee | May 3, 2015 | Placeless
The slight, young instructor who was so patient when, earlier, I stumbled through the cha cha, drove me backwards with a force I had not anticipated.
Squeamish
by Jacob Schepers | May 2, 2015 | Placeless
These are the newfangled priests and priestesses. White lab coats their robes, surgical masks and safety glasses their phylacteries.
