Welcome to December! In this month’s blogs, I’ll be sharing poems with you—mostly reflections on Christmas. In this first poem, I write about what I’ve spent most of yesterday and today doing: decorating my home for Christmas. At our house that’s a pretty predictable process. But not all Christmas preparations are as easy to list.… Continue reading Advent Preparations
When presented, by my writing group, with the challenge to write about my experience during the pandemic, my first thought was to do it in poem form (seeing as how it’s April and National Poetry Month). “Pandemic Lifestyle” is a snapshot of some of the things that have characterized the last months for me and… Continue reading Pandemic Lifestyle – a poem
The Minister's Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Doubt, Friendship, Loneliness, Forgiveness, and More by Karen StillerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I first discovered this book when I attended a webinar on writing spiritual memoir hosted by an Ottawa writing group, where the author, Karen Stiller, was the presenter. I was intrigued. Watching a later… Continue reading The Minister’s Wife – review
Here, on Good Friday, the last day of Lent, Laurel and I conclude our Lenten conversation with one more poem and image. Laurel’s poem prompt, “Quicken,” articulates the restless dissatisfaction and the sense of “dare I hope that things can be different?” characteristic of us in our human state. Those feelings have only been amplified… Continue reading Lent Conversation — Conclusion
Is God involved in the tiniest details of our lives? I think so. It was Laurel’s turn to start the conversation this week with a poem. When I hadn’t heard from her by last Tuesday, I emailed and asked if she had a poem for the week. It turned out she thought she had sent… Continue reading A Lent Conversation – Week 5
After reading the first few pages of Amee’s Story, I wasn’t sure I would ever finish the book. That’s not because it was poorly written. Rather, it was so well written I was pulled back into a difficult time in my own life. However, I persisted with the reading and I’m so glad I did.… Continue reading Amee’s Story – review
Behind Her Name by Eunice Cooper-MatchettMy rating: 5 of 5 stars You would never know from the confident look of the woman sitting at the bookstore table signing books for her fans, that Sage Bush was still trapped in her traumatic childhood. But she was. In Behind Her Name, author Eunice Cooper-Matchett explores, with wonderful… Continue reading Behind Her Name – review
"Galaxy" - © 2020 by V. Nesdoly Yesterday a newsfeed headline “How to Prepare Now for the Complete End of the World” caught my eye. I didn’t read the article right away, but it got me thinking. Are we near the “complete end of the world”? The spreading covid19 virus, the doom and gloom of… Continue reading Prepare for the End of Your World
The Way of Letting Go: One Woman's Walk toward Forgiveness by Wilma Derksen My rating: 5 of 5 stars The abduction of their 13-year-old daughter in November off 1984 shunted Winnipeg residents Cliff and Wilma Derksen onto an unfamiliar and horror-strewn track. The discovery of her body seven months later, bound and frozen, provided closure… Continue reading The Way of Letting Go (review)
A few weeks ago an acquaintance sent me a newly published book of her poems. They were simple but beautiful in their first-person expression of praise, love, and gratitude to God—a collection of modern psalms. I reacted to that book like I have to other similar ones, asking myself, why don’t I write more overtly… Continue reading Vicarious (Spiritual Journey Thursday)
Violet Nesdoly 