By H. Lynn Gardner Marv Dahmen, a retired art teacher, serves as a deacon of the Christian Church of Carl Junction, Missouri. Through rocks, cars, and sculptures, his creativity abounds. Art with Rocks Since age 5 Marv has loved rocks. At age 13 he began to cut and polish stones and make jewelry. Collecting rocks […]
By Meg Foster In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch says, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” This quote is the essence of empathy—moving beyond mere sympathy and taking on […]
By Katherine Scott Jones Its first stirrings drew me awake this morning, my subconscious forming the germ of an idea that would become what you’re reading now. Pushed into the conscious realm, words sprang ex nihilo into existence—nothing made into something. How does it happen? No one really knows, although we have a word for […]
By Anna Fasolino “Good morning, Captain!” 21-year-old Abby Hartley’s clear voice sails through the loudspeakers over the RV park in Waldron, Arkansas. She’s singing the opening lines of “Mule Skinner Blues,” a bluegrass classic she has performed since she was 8 years old. Later she and 13-year-old Micah harmonize on their fiddles in a beautiful […]
By Kelly Carr “I thought she said ‘back flip,’ so I moved out of the way. But she actually said ‘trust fall’ and then fell, but I didn’t catch her!” That was a story from a young girl about church camp. The the child who trusted was OK, so the story made me giggle. Ah, […]
