The Nest … A True Ghost Story

October 29, 2011

Years ago a librarian in San Antonio shared a story about her own grandmother’s ghost in Dime Box, Texas. I took the information she gave me and wrote a story. When she read it, she gave me permission to tell the tale, but asked that I change the names, so as not to upset her [...]

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Ghost Hunt In Nacogdoches

March 29, 2011

None of the parents actually heard the story I told to the 4th grade. Yet, for a week I have been vilified. Their objection was not, as far as I can tell, that it was a ghost story, but that it mentions that “man had killed his wife, and then killed himself.” Hey, if there [...]

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Dona Nobis Pacem — The Art Of Compromise

November 4, 2010

Tales of peace have been swirling in my head for weeks. You see, this is the day that I join with brothers and sisters from around the world to blog for peace on earth. World peace would be a marvelous thing, but it begins with each individual choosing peace. The old folk tales have marvelous [...]

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Percussion Things

June 4, 2010

Are you familiar with the Todd Rundgren song “Bang On The Drum All Day?” Oh, go give it a listen and you will be dancing in your seat. The lyrics include the line: “I don’t want to work, I want to bang on the drum all day.” For my friend Len Barnett that is his [...]

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The Cave

March 21, 2010

Your lungs feel as if they might explode, if your heart doesn’t give out first. You stumble on rocks you can’t see in the darkness. You can taste the fear at the back of your mouth. Fear is all you have eaten for days as you stumbled across this unfamiliar terrain. But, there is not [...]

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I Want To Be A Coffee Bean

March 17, 2010

At the Texas Storytelling Festival this last weekend, many fine tales were told. One in particular was told by my friend Elida Bonet, a marvelous storyteller who grew up in Panama, at the Sacred Tales concert. She said the story had come to her in one of those forwarded “inspirational e-mails” she gets (the ones [...]

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It’s A Storytelling Festival

March 10, 2010

It’s happening this weekend: The 25th Annual Texas Storytelling Festival! And, it’s right here in Denton, Texas from March 11-14, 2010. It hardly seems possible that it was twenty-five years ago, when a friend of mine had a dream. Finley Stewart, about whom I have posted before, wanted to bring together storytellers and story listeners [...]

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Wistful Thinking

March 5, 2010

Two garments live side by side in my closet. Hanging together … as they did many years ago. Neither is particularly attractive or stylish; both have seen better days. Their fabric is “pilled,” as so often happens with knits that have been washed many times, although I have washed neither of them since they have [...]

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The Playhouse

February 23, 2010

[I've been working on a project that I'm finding difficult, but I have to finish it. I MUST! You see, I heard my mother's voice telling me, as she often did, "You are just like your father." She didn't necessarily mean that in a good way. Every time I think those words, my memories are [...]

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Titillation Part Two

January 21, 2010

At my age, I’ve decided that life is too short to read books I don’t enjoy. A book has to titillate me in the first chapter, or I’ll close it and walk away. Now, I defined “titillate” in Part One, so stop tittering about it. I simply mean that a book has to excite my [...]

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Titillation: Part One

January 20, 2010

Hey, stop it! “Titillate” is a perfectly fine verb meaning “to excite another, especially in a superficial, pleasurable manner.” Though it can be used in an erotic sense, that isn’t the intent of the word. But, if you want to see a group of adults collapse into a paroxysm of nervous giggling … “tittering,” if [...]

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Life Would Be A Dinglederry, If I Only Had A Brain

January 13, 2010

My life resembles the soundtrack from the Wizard of Oz. Like the Scarecrow, I go around singing “If I Only Had A Brain.” But, wait! I do have a brain … in fact, I keep it in the living room so that everyone will see it. Unfortunately, it’s just a brain coral. I’ve done something [...]

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Lover’s Embrace

January 3, 2010

Sometimes I hear my Grandfather’s voice whispering stories inside my head. Yesterday, my husband and I took a walk and found two trees that had grown together. As we marveled at those trees, hugging like a pair of old lovers, Papaw’s slow East Texas drawl came through loud and clear. Pardon the length of it, [...]

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Dona Nobis Pacem. Doing Our Part.

November 5, 2009

Rabbit was hopping along one day, when he stumbled over Hummingbird, who was lying flat on his back in the middle of the path. He had his feet sticking straight up in the air. “Are you sick?” asked Rabbit. “Nope,” said Hummingbird. “Are you hurt?” Rabbit inquired. “Nope,” said Hummingbird. “What’s going on?” cried Rabbit. [...]

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Is Ghost Radar Real, Or Am I A Half-Bubble Off Plumb?

October 29, 2009

I told y’all that I was going to have some fun with that Ghost Radar application on my iPhone, didn’t I? Yes, I surely did. Anybody who reads here regularly already knows that I’m about half-bubble off of plumb, so I’m gonna tell you this story about my Ghost Radar. This week I have been [...]

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A Year Of Optimism

October 23, 2009

I almost missed the anniversary! It was a year ago (October 17th, 2008) when I first decided to post only the good on Fridays. I can’t believe it has been that long, and I’m flabbergasted that I stuck with it. I am NOT a “goody two shoes” and optimism does NOT come naturally to me. [...]

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Roomful of Rocking Chairs

October 20, 2009

In the twenty-some-odd years that I have been telling stories, I can count on one two hands the number of times that I have had “stage fright.” I have to admit that at this very moment I finally understand a phrase my Papaw always used: “I’m as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room [...]

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Intermission

October 15, 2009

Get a load of that look on my face. Do you think that would make a youngster afraid to squirm while sitting in one of my audiences? Darn tootin’! Oh, I don’t make that face all the time. I was probably being dramatic or something. Most of the time I’m sticking my finger up my [...]

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Segues

October 13, 2009

Those of us who use search engines on computers are familiar with segues. It means: “to make a transition from one thing to another smoothly and without interruption.” It happens to me every day. I start searching for something, for instance “warning signs of swine flu,” and when I find that I click on a [...]

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I Love Fairweather

October 12, 2009

No, that wasn’t a typo. I like good weather, sure. But, I love Fairweather Lewis! She’s a blogger that my friend Jamie (another blogger I love) told me about. All month long, in honor of Halloween, Fairweather Lewis has been featuring ghost stories! Don’t you like ghost stories? Fairweather is a master storyteller, and she [...]

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