“Who’ll read Uncle Paul? You have to read with a voice ‘like hard cheese being grated.’ Anyone?” A student’s hand shoots up instantly, and he snatches the highlighted short story out of the air, scanning his part seriously. The last class on Friday is gathered in a rectangle of couches in the Student Center, whose…
Author: Kristi
Teacher. Writer. Traveler. Learning to see God everywhere.
At the Ghost Fair: Wealth and Education
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having…
On Basketball
“Y’all ready for this?” asks the sound system on Friday night, the classic 90s warm-up playing just underneath the percussive arrhythmia of bouncing rubber balls and squealing rubber shoes, all three sounds telling us one thing: the Game is about to start. When the pre-game clock runs down to zero, most of the students in…
Things That Made Life Better This Year: 2011 Edition
I greatly admire those with the concentrated expertise to create Top 10 Lists at the ends of years. There seem endless iterations, from the predictable books and movies to the more niche markets, like Mediterranean cruises or ways to prepare bacon. Yet my admiration can’t make up for the fact that there are only a…
The Use of Stories
“What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true?” Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories Snow is falling hesitantly, halfheartedly over Kandern this Sunday afternoon. Our living room is the picture of calm, complete with soft Christmas music and my sister, Holly, cutting out snowflakes while Emily’s brother, David, writes emails. I compare…
Of Thanks and Windowsills
Thanksgiving Day, American Literature Class. I confess that many of my creative writing lessons come from reading McSweeney’s, a creative literary journal whose online concern usually contains well-crafted and humorous prose. The Open Letter of Thanks is one of those lessons, modified for the students of Ingraham and now Black Forest Academy, on the occasion…
In the Forest
In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. Ralph Waldo Emerson It is grey November, a Thursday afternoon,…
Life Together
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father. Colossians 3:17 The sun still hangs over the horizon when I reach the summit of Hochblauen on Sunday afternoon. Our local mountain, Hochblauen is truly a hill with a hotel at the…
The Way Home 