Thank you to the readers who asked if we were okay in the rainfall after Hurricane Helene: we’re fine; it didn’t hit my part of Appalachia at all. All we got was some much needed rain, and I felt guilty. Appalachia has different regions just like every other part of the world; I live in the very top of Northern Appalachia, across the river from the chimney of West Virginia. That part wasn’t hit at all, though there are a... Read more
September wasn’t an easy month, but we ate well. We almost didn’t because things have been so difficult. At the beginning of the month we were still behind on rent and in serious trouble, but thanks to a series of lucky breaks, we broke even at zero about halfway through, and then we had to put every penny towards trying to replace my catastrophe of a ten-year-old Nissan– and we’re still not quite there yet. I wondered how we were... Read more
The first gasp of Autumn is not color, but drying up. September is the drying up time of year. It’s not colorful and beautiful Autumn yet. It’s the part of Autumn where the trees start to look exhausted and dusty. I desperately want to go for a hike out in the woods, to see the dusty trees before they change color. Hiking is how I breathe. It’s absolutely vital, and I’ve been without it for three months. At this... Read more
I want to talk about a couple of important articles I read recently, and the backlash they got, and what it has to do with pregnancy and defending life. My friend Rebecca Bratten Weiss recently wrote a really good article for U. S. Catholic, where she laid out the case that Kamala Harris, while certainly not pro-life, has a policy approach that is in better alignment with a consistent life ethic than the Republican platform. And remember, I insist that... Read more
The State of Missouri killed an innocent man today. There is a host of evidence that Marcellus Williams was innocent. The prosecutor’s office asked for a new trial when DNA testing suggested he was innocent. One prosecutor admitted he’d struck a juror from the pool merely because he was Black like Marcellus was. The murder victim’s family asked that the sentence be changed to life in prison, but the governor refused clemency. Killing him was too important. The governor... Read more
I’d like to draw your attention to a very important piece of reporting I’ve been privileged to experience ahead of time. This new podcast is a deep dive into the People of Hope Catholic Covenant Community. Please have a listen to the first two episodes of the “Shadow of Hope” podcast series, which just dropped today. Karen Ann Coburn has created an eight-part series, and she was kind enough to let me listen to these two episodes in advance.... Read more
It’s been a hard day. It happens to be the day before Adrienne’s birthday, the anniversary of that abusive childbirth, the hardest thing that’s ever happened to me. Adrienne’s birthday is a happy day but the day before is my severely triggered one. And Adrienne is older and wants me to respect her privacy instead of writing a whole post about her, so that’s all the birthday news you’re going to get right now. I’m still allowed to talk about... Read more
It’s the very last day of summer. It’s just after midnight as I’m writing this. That means it’s the last day of summer, the 21st of September; it’s also the last day I’ll have a preteen instead of a teenager. Adrienne celebrated today with cake and a friend, and then they walked to the high school football game together. She will turn thirteen on Sunday. It might be the last week I have these sunflowers. I keep trimming... Read more
Amber Thurman should not be dead. Amber Thurman is a woman whose name has been all over the news. She was a young mother in Georgia with a six-year-old son she loved dearly. She wanted to go to nursing school. She’d just moved into a nice new apartment with a swimming pool, where she was excited to take her boy. When she found she was pregnant with twins, Amber went to another state for an abortion and was given pills,... Read more
It’s time to talk politics again. I don’t even know where to start. I keep staring at the porcupine of tabs that are open at the top of this screen, and not knowing which one to click to read and summarize the news. I’ve been trying to do relatively lighthearted rundowns of all the political news leading up to the 2024 election once a week, with separate posts for news specifically about Ohio and news specifically about the pro-life... Read more
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