By U.S. State
By Country
Matrimonial Meaning-taking
by Robert Zandstra | Aug 22, 2014 | Oregon
As the eleventh cousin on both sides of my family, I grew up going to older cousins’ weddings at least annually. I grew to love attending weddings; I have always found them very meaningful.
On Curiosity
by Gabe Gunnink | Aug 20, 2014 | Washington, D.C.
I’m realizing that curiosity, like goodness and faithfulness, is a virtue. Blessed are the curious, for they will inherit the wonders around them.
Matthew Brady’s True Legacy
by Mary Margaret Healy | Aug 19, 2014 | Pennsylvania
He did everything it took to get those photographs. If there was a particularly artistic patch of land that happened to have no bodies, he and his crew would move them into position before shooting.
Miss Bardolph, Pen-Slinger
by Matt & Laura Hubers | Aug 18, 2014 | Placeless
When the seniors put on a homecoming skit and dressed up as the various teachers, the kid playing me had a pocket full of twenty or thirty pens to throw around at random.
Wait For It…
by Geneva Langeland | Aug 17, 2014 | Michigan
I sat back, dumbfounded, as these realizations came trickling in. I felt a little sheepish that it took so long for me to figure it out. God got a well-deserved slow clap.
To Ty and Lou
by Andrew Knot | Aug 16, 2014 | Placeless
Later in the year, by then good friends, we learned that we had actually met much sooner, as naked toddlers in a bathtub. If I had known this earlier…
Beach Bah Humbugs
by Cassie Westrate | Aug 15, 2014 | Michigan
But if I’m being honest, I kind of hate the beach. If I must go to the beach in the summer, I prefer going before 9 a.m. or after 7 p.m. You know, with the runners or the couples.
Wisconsin’s Own Phox
by Will Montei | Aug 14, 2014 | Wisconsin
I’m 24. I’m old now. I have a bedtime. I pay for health insurance. I drink hot tea to prevent kidney stones. But these tickets were free, and I liked the group, so why not?
That’s Where We Want to Go
by Catherine Kramer | Aug 13, 2014 | Indiana
I knew it as soon as I saw it on the map with all the little pins. This was the worst. Kokomo, Indiana. It’s basically Pawnee without Leslie Knope there to keep it afloat.
Burn
by Abby Zwart | Aug 12, 2014 | Placeless
Reading what people would save and why is such an intimate peek into their lives that sometimes it even feels like prying. People bring photos of their wives and collars from dogs who have died.
Why We Wander
by Elaine Schnabel | Aug 11, 2014 | Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Switzerland
As a writer, I want to say I’m haunted by this question—why do we travel? In reality I’m not “haunted” by the why of travel so much as annoyed by its insistence on being answered.
The Wedding Dancer
by Katie Van Zanen | Aug 10, 2014 | Placeless
Though self-conscious in the great majority of situations, I am a dedicated wedding dancer, so even at more subdued nuptials, I feel a sense of commitment to the boogie.
Somewhere in Middle America
by Bart Tocci | Aug 9, 2014 | Chicago, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, South Dakota
We drove into the night, and every five to ten miles, we’d see a light in the distance. A farmhouse, no doubt. People live there, no doubt. Where do they get water? Groceries? Where do they go to school?
Paul’s Summer Mixtape
by Paul Menn | Aug 8, 2014 | Placeless
7. Less Than Jake – “Short Fuse Burning”. I will never not love Less Than Jake. Plus, every summer mixtape needs a punk rock song about feeling misunderstood and lost.
Boyhood
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Aug 7, 2014 | New York
When the main character proclaimed with confidence that the best movies of the year were The Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express, we were the most tickled people in the theater. Oh, 2008.
Stealth Camping: Part Three
by Josh deLacy | Aug 6, 2014 | Canada
Maps do not mark nameless places. Guidebooks rarely print recommendations of ambiguous legality. So the frugal traveler must listen to vague rumors and offhand comments. Although they carry more risk, they also carry more potential than any official source.
Make Your Move
by Alissa Anderson | Aug 5, 2014 | Indiana, New York
We’re moving to New York on the 18th. My parents are helping us with the move, because what guy wouldn’t want to spend the week after his wedding on a road trip with his in-laws?
The Proverbs of Hell
by Andrew Steiner | Aug 4, 2014 | Placeless
1. In childhood, run. In youth, laugh. In mid-age, accumulate. 2. In old age, weep. If the living could see Hades, they would not call it death. 3. Excess with open hand is charity; excess with open eyes is greed.
A Fabulous Reality
by Sabrina Lee | Aug 3, 2014 | Placeless
She shows us that it is possible to be a human squid and to play on a seahorse piano. She dances in impossible shoes and belts out that her ARTPOP could mean anything.
A Way for Peace
by Jacob Schepers | Aug 2, 2014 | Placeless
I will say that, even in the face of failure, that this reaching—and even the mere trying to reach—peels away at why and how poetry matters, at least sometimes, at least for some people.
Worth It
by Amy (Allen) Frieson | Aug 1, 2014 | Placeless
Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion. Inertia is why my sister’s cat sometimes runs into my leg when he tries to scamper down our polished-hardwood hallway.
Forward and Back
by Abby Zwart | Jul 31, 2014 | Placeless
We made it! One year is in the bag. And from our perspective, it has been a major success. Read on for a few words of gratitude, some fascinating numbers, and several exciting announcements.
Take Only What You Need From It
by Catherine Kramer | Jul 30, 2014 | Placeless
But the undeniable truth is out there: I, Catherine Kramer, am the author of Boy Meets World Continued, published by the Mrs. Vanden Brink Press (a print-on-demand operation) in 2001.
Seeing Staci
by Michael Kelly | Jul 29, 2014 | Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo
I didn’t say anything. Not yet. But I was getting drunker. Not off the single beer I had to drink, but off the flood of potent memories over our last eight years of friendship.
Leaving
by Brad Zwiers | Jul 27, 2014 | Placeless
What if I still went out for drinks with those block-building friends I had in kindergarten? What if I still talked with my favorite deskmate from elementary?
When Our Dogs Go
by Griffin Jackson | Jul 26, 2014 | Placeless
It’s a little bit embarrassing the way our dogs affect us. We develop a language with them. We call them the weirdest pet names. We let them get away with things.
For Better, For Worse
by Bethany Tap | Jul 25, 2014 | Connecticut, Michigan, North Carolina
On our wedding night, Clarissa and I got a call from our roommates in North Carolina saying that our house had been robbed. Someone had thrown a brick through the kitchen window.
On Toads and Tedium
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | Jul 24, 2014 | Placeless
I ended up spending half the carnival with the oldest girls’ cabin, running the kissing booth. Now, before you google my summer camp and withdraw your children in horror, let me explain.
How to Change a Name
by Jenn Langefeld | Jul 23, 2014 | Placeless
What happens when Jenn Langefeld actually means failed writer? I imagined stepping into editorial meetings and my real name slipping out. “Oh, you’re her? Scratch that contract.”
Faithwashing
by Robert Zandstra | Jul 22, 2014 | Placeless
In an era when people derive meaning and identity through brand loyalty, Christianity should not be treated like a brand. Churches should not be treated like corporations.
