Author: nanallen

“My dog ate my homework.” The well-worn classic grade school excuse. This present student generation has a new take on that: “My computer crashed and it didn’t save my paper.” (I’ve heard that one a lot from teaching college students.) Here are a couple of the excuses I hear when someone tries to explain why […]

“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1 We have a clock. Well, we used to have a clock in our bedroom. It was lovely and decorative and it was perfect for a blank space on our wall. However, as long as I can remember that clock […]

I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase. It means to take someone else’s idea, using it for your own advantage, or to preempt someone else’s rhetorical impact. (Another literary word for this is plagiarism, which, unfortunately, I see sometimes while grading college essays.) I digress. Most adages, like this one, have curious origins. This saying came […]

Years ago, when we were serving in a small country church, a lady stood up in the Wednesday night prayer meeting and requested prayer. It was not for herself, she said, but for Laura. Seems Laura was going through a difficult time and needed God’s touch. Well, the church member went on to describe Laura’s […]

“I really enjoy reading your blob,” an elderly lady told me once. I thanked her, but didn’t correct her—that it was a “blog” and not a “blob.” But as I walked away that day I thought, “Maybe what I write is a blob. Just like my meandering thoughts, my writing sometimes comes across as a […]

I’m from the South and there are certain things that we say and do that are, well… uniquely southern. For instance, recently someone asked me to a meal at her house. I accepted and then immediately asked, “What can I bring?” I always ask this, and almost always, the answer is “Just bring yourself.” This […]

I love music. Always have and always will. My mother told me that I could hum the tune to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” before I could talk. Part of my affection for the art is hereditary (my dad sang in a gospel quartet) and the other part is just an inborn ability that I was […]