By U.S. State
By Country
Speed Skating in Sochi
by Andrew Knot | Feb 16, 2014 | Russia
The Olympics’ mythic weight translates perfectly into speed skating. Strength and finesse collide at exhilarating speeds, leaving little room for hesitation and even less for error.
Food of Love
by Sarah (VanderMolen) Sundt | Feb 15, 2014 | Placeless
“Miss, do you even love your husband anymore?” The truth is, I don’t really care about the lovey-dovey Valentine’s Day. What I do care about is our family tradition.
Solitude
by Will Montei | Feb 14, 2014 | Wisconsin
I’m not sure if it’s the grey skies, the bitter cold, or the profound solitude of post-college life, but She has taken residence in my thoughts once more.
Mom-I-Am
by Melissa Dykhuis | Feb 13, 2014 | Placeless
Mom-I-Am. Pop-Hopper, Cat-Hatter. Roar!… I’m a dinosaur! Where’s Waldo, and why is he wandering off again? The words resign themselves to be simple for now, brown cow.
Eurydice
by Abby Zwart | Feb 12, 2014 | Placeless
“Orpheus! what ruin hath thy frenzy wrought/On me, alas! and thee?/Dark sleep closes my swimming eyes. And now farewell:/with enormous night I am borne away.”
Holy Spirit Slap
by Elaine Schnabel | Feb 11, 2014 | Placeless
I’m sorry to be critical, but would you mind slapping those Christians who bookended her talk, God? Nicely, of course. Like with the power of the Holy Spirit?
Pathfinding
by David Greendonner | Feb 10, 2014 | California
I could see the red crowns of the bridge above the tree line. I couldn’t quite figure my next step. I was here. The bridge was there.
Lexington Minutemen
by Bart Tocci | Feb 9, 2014 | Massachusetts
The cheerleaders sat in the bleachers and did muffled clapping and stomping routines. (The clapping was muffled on account of the mittens.)
I Smell Horses in Slovakia/How to See Deer
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Feb 7, 2014 | Poland, Slovakia
When you are traveling with friends through rural Slovakia and your rental car gets broken into, you learn how to say “do piče.” It’s an expletive.
We Had Lived
by Josh deLacy | Feb 6, 2014 | Washington
In case my brother dies before me, he and I have already planned his funeral. It will go, more or less, something like this:
When Life Gets Crazy, Make Spaghetti Squash*
by Alissa Anderson | Feb 5, 2014 | Placeless
My life didn’t become any less crazy after making spaghetti squash, just like it didn’t become any less crazy after eating ramen for lunch four days in a row.
Aquavitae: My Life in Four Drinks
by Andrew Steiner | Feb 4, 2014 | Michigan
We were servers, carrying trays of bruschetta between the tables and out onto the veranda where the sun was bright on the Lake and the bare shoulders of the bridesmaids. I was 17.
Feels Like the Movies
by Sabrina Lee | Feb 3, 2014 | France
Alice also warned me that the inmates would shake our hands, wanting contact with the outside world, and when one lone student finally straggled in, he proffered his hand to both of us.
If Only for a Day
by Jacob Schepers | Feb 2, 2014 | Placeless
I consider the substitute’s plight to be a paradox of permanence. Our teacher is absent, the students reason, ergo, this person before us now is but a specter—or, at worst, a charlatan… POUNCE!
Pizza Week
by Amy (Allen) Frieson | Feb 1, 2014 | New York
Somehow I have ended up eating pizza four times in the last six days. One of those was homemade with weird flour. It ended up shaped like a broccoli tree.
Science vs. God
by Melissa Dykhuis | Jan 31, 2014 | Placeless
Bill Nye worries that students won’t believe in Science because they’re too distracted by God, and Ken Ham worries that students won’t believe in God because they’re too distracted by Science.
In Good Company
by Bob Vander Lugt | Jan 30, 2014 | Placeless
After sending something into the world, after selling a couple dozen copies, I know that writing may be an individual act, but it isn’t a solitary one. It requires some very good company.
The Resolutions of Utena
by Jacqueline Ristola | Jan 29, 2014 | Placeless
The series never forgets all the hard work it takes to achieve the freedom that Adolescence of Utena celebrates, and painstakingly details the progressions it takes to achieve liberation.
January
by Stephen Mulder | Jan 28, 2014 | Placeless
The potential deposit return on the cascade of empty soda bottles spilling out of the front hall closet is likely sufficient to pay my wife’s bus fare for the next three semesters.
Cambodia, Pt. 2
by Brad Zwiers | Jan 27, 2014 | Cambodia
It is impossible to come back from that trip and not feel encouraged by what we saw and heard and encountered: a people standing upright and resolute, and new life filling the cracks.
The Simplest Act
by Griffin Jackson | Jan 26, 2014 | Placeless
And this is a little bit comforting, but mostly annoying. Because what if God doesn’t intend for you to head toward that promotion, wasn’t planning on sticking to your timetables?
I Am Lord Voldemort
by Josh deLacy | Jan 25, 2014 | Grand Rapids, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington
The first of Adalbert Waffling’s Fundamental Laws of Magic: “Tamper with the deepest mysteries—the source of life, the essence of self—only if prepared for consequences of the most extreme and dangerous kind.”
Be Yourself
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | Jan 24, 2014 | Placeless
So you can imagine my confusion when boys neglected to be dazzled by my still un-shaved armpits and my attempts to engage them in witty repartee by repeatedly quoting Muppet Treasure Island.
The Best Way to Skip Resolution-Making
by Jenn Langefeld | Jan 23, 2014 | Placeless
Before one of our visits, she announced that while we were there, she wanted to have a List Party. With a cake. As soon as she said list party, the idea grew legs. Wings. We all said, Absolutely yes.
Resolved
by Robert Zandstra | Jan 22, 2014 | Placeless
Part of the tension around New Year resolutions, I’ve realized, is suggested by the paradoxes of the meaning and etymology of the word resolution itself.
Playing the Piano
by Libby Stille | Jan 21, 2014 | Placeless
I have dabbled in piano, even learning two songs by memory just to have a few to play in case I’m zapped back to the nineteenth century and have to play piano in the equivalent of a Jane Austen novel.
Learning from “Dumb” Goals
by Calah Schlabach | Jan 20, 2014 | Washington, D.C.
I always figured that if I had something I legitimately wanted to change, I would certainly not make a NYR regarding it, because that would be pre-determining failure for the thing I actually cared about.
Resolution of the Past
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jan 19, 2014 | Placeless
My favorite picture in the whole world: my maternal grandparents in their Sunday best, walking down a street. It’s a black-and-white picture, and to this day, I’m not entirely sure how they had it taken.
Retail Resolve
by Matt & Laura Hubers | Jan 18, 2014 | Placeless
I thought it was bad my first day in the department when a woman came in, lifted up her shirt, and said “I like this bra. Can you find me another one?”
Stayin’ Alive
by Geneva Langeland | Jan 17, 2014 | Placeless
It’s Tuesday evening at the Southeast YMCA, and my squats are getting shallower. Cindi, the weight-training instructor, wanders through the crowded room, counting reps, shouting encouragement.
