Mountaintop. Most of the time we use this term to describe highpoints of life—the pinnacles of emotion, the successes in life. It is often accompanied by feelings of euphoria. So then the valley often describes loneliness, despair—the pits! But I see those terms differently now. For three years, we literally lived on a mountaintop–Leadpole Mountain. […]
We couldn’t have found a better light show if we had been in New York City, on the mall in Washington D.C. or on Main Street at DisneyWorld. On July 4th, we were with our sons and their families in a suburban Nashville subdivision. Just after dark we began feeling the percussive presence of fireworks, […]
I teach a class in Creative Writing: Nonfiction at the college. This is the first time it’s ever been taught at the school; it’s the first time I’ve ever taught it, although I did take the class as a part of my master’s degree. The class is small—only three students—all seniors and all male. Among […]
Two events were separated by 15 hours and less than two miles, and I attended (and thoroughly enjoyed) them both. Last Friday night, we went to hear the Atlanta Symphony pay musical tribute to film score composer extraordinaire John Williams. It was an incredible experience! Then Saturday, we went to Bobby Dodd Stadium to watch […]
Simple. It was one of the words I heard used often during a recent weekend spent with old friends from high school. “Those were simple times.” “We had simple goals.” “I simply loved that moment in my life.” As my friends and I reminisced about Friday night football games, Sunday morning church, family dinners, and […]
Almost every morning I open my bedroom curtains and behold the magnificent layers of mountains, hills, and valleys that seem to go on forever. However, sometimes like this morning, a thick fog is hanging across my backdrop, and I can see nothing but a white mist. Thank goodness most of the time the fog doesn’t […]
It’s been a hot summer here in the North Georgia Mountains. At times during the heat I resurrected and relished memories of the place where, as a child, I learned to swim. It was called Lake Geneva, a public entertainment complex just out of the city limits with a pool that was fed by the […]
There were two speeds. Slow and comatose. Two temperatures. Hot and hot with a breeze. In my original post in this blog “Chasing Bimini”, which began February 2012, I introduced the notion that I had been looking for the perfect destination in life for a long time. I imagined that place to be Bimini, which at first I […]
It’s that time again! Churches all over the globe are planning an event we know as Vacation Bible School. VBS (as it’s been called for over a century in America) is alive and well, and still doing what it was originally designed to do: teach children the Bible. I fondly remember VBS at my home […]
A TV ad in the ’80’s for instant coffee instructed us to “Celebrate the Moments of Our Lives.” I’ve never been a fan myself of the drink mix they advertised, but I still like their slogan—and I’m learning how to celebrate “moments” as I’ve gotten older. Last weekend, I celebrated the receipt of my Master’s degree […]