How to weather a storm Resilience and empathy form a real power couple in difficult times. Picture the scene: my office, the Monday morning after…
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Category: Personal Narrative
Major Category
Choosing to Set the Tone
“I’m thinking of writing my column this week on choosing a good attitude,” I said to my teenage daughter. “Can you think of anything else…
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Fire and Ice: Ice Storm 2022
Fire and Ice: Ice Storm 2022 “We are all fine. Our house is not.” I have texted, emailed, and repeated those words in my heart…
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Captain, My Captain: Cancer Survivorship
After the close of the 2021 college football season earlier last month, I looked back on a unique moment during the season when I played…
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January: A Poem
Swirling thoughts threaten my joy. Burnout: groceries, again; cooking, again; backpacks, again; that minivan with doors that slide: forward, back; forward, back; forward, back; again.…
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Looking from Here to a Place Beyond Waiting Rooms
“One question,” he plops down a big stack of paperwork on her desk. “My parents won’t see these forms, will they?” I cannot hear the…
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Great Outdoors and the Need to Roam
I have finally given up. Maybe “given in” is a better way to say it. It seems that riding bikes, building forts, running barefoot down…
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Get Out of Town: Rollin’ Stone Weekend
Story and photos by Ken Billett, originally published in StoryBoard Memphis Quarterly, Vol. 1 Issue I September 26, 2021, approximately 9:00 am: the stainless steel…
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Dear New Southerners: Welcome & Please Don’t Mess It Up
A fresh, new, hardback book appeared under the tree for me this year, and I was delighted because it was plucked right off my wish…
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Southern Sinterklaas: Merging Holiday Traditions
“Anything sweet in the cupboard?” I asked. December and the holidays bring out the worst in my sweet tooth. “We still have some of these…”…
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