I have heard three stories recently of mothers who verbally told their children they wished they hadn’t been born. “Ouch!” for such wounded ones on Mother’s Day. I have friends who, because their moms passed away while they were young, grew up in homes of relatives. Other friends lived with mothers of mental illnesses, alcoholism, and…
“Never let the child die within you,” advises Ashley Bryan, 93-year-old artist and author, who recently spoke at the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College, Grand Rapids. During FFW, I also heard children book writers Andrew Clements, Glenys Nellist, Aaree Chung, M.T. Anderson, and Lorie Langdon. If you give books to children, you…
I am thinking about windmills and lighthouses, after attending the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College, Grand Rapids. FFW is a bi-annual, three-day April conference where 2000 writers, editors, and readers descend on campus to hear speakers intertwine their faith with their writing under an interfaith flag. The Festival offers a buffet for…