Category: books
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Stop Crying
Do you cry too much? My father used to reward me for staying in and being safe. As a police officer he coolly handled blood, insanity and anger, but he could not handle threats to his children. He could not handle the idea of them making mistakes or being shamed. His heart was in the […]
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Quilting a Life: A Conversation About the Value of Making Art
“Everything you can imagine is real.” Pablo Picasso My daughter-in-law and I chatted all weekend about the creative life, raising children and genealogy as somehow connected to our life’s purpose the last time she was up for a visit with my son and grandson. On this visit Sam brought along a current project she is […]
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Book Review: The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
My father lived in a cursed house as a child. Every night an old hag with a red kerchief wrapped around her head climbed the shingles of the house up to his window and knocked with her boney fingers until he woke with a start. My uncle was hit by a truck in that house. […]
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“Trauma is hell on earth. Trauma resolved is a gift from the gods.”― Peter A. Levine
“But you can’t escape from shadows or pain. You only find new ones. It’s better, I think, not to try to escape them at all but to accept that they will be there, and to remember that good things happen, too, even if you can’t always see them.” ― Christina Henry, Looking Glass Victims can be quite […]
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Catholic Sister Nurses of the Civil War
“They are not ladies or women, but Sisters of Charity.” To Bind Up the Wounds, Maher Most female Civil War nurses did not work on battlefields, but one of my favorite stories about the Catholic Sister nurses takes place on the field after a battle. A doctor and his wife brought a Sister along to […]
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Book Review: Giants in the Earth by O. E. Rolvaag
Are you looking for a light and cheerful winter read? Well, this isn’t the one! It’s brilliant — like snow-blind brilliant. It’s human, but in the most tragic sense. It’s spellbinding like a breathtaking winter sunset when it’s far below freezing. Most Americans are familiar with THE LONG WINTER by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Pa’s optimism […]
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Top 3 Civil War Soldier Memoirs
My mother named me after a popular cheerleader from her high school days, but I discovered recently that I shared the name Adrienne with a patron saint of the military. This may explain why I’ve always been so drawn to soldiers’ stories. I bet there’s some deep psychological need lurking beneath this life-long interest, but […]
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Sirach on Pride
What is too sublime for you, do not seek; do not reach into things that are hidden from you. What is committed to you, pay heed to; what is hidden is not your concern. In matters that are beyond you do not meddle, when you have been shown more than you can understand. SIRACH 3:21-23 […]
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Therefore I Exist
Yesterday was the beginning of Lent for Christians. This was the first time in years (or maybe ever) that I was excited to get the ashes smeared on my forehead. Going back to Confession was a big step for me since for the longest time I hated the idea of a priesthood set apart. I […]
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Are Artists Selfish?
“How good life is when one does something right and just!” The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky I read somewhere that Dostoevsky originally intended for The Brothers Karamazov to be three times as long as it actually turned out to be. If it had been, I definitely would have followed his characters along. Despite being a […]
Author Adrienne Morris 