I rarely go through the checkout line with a real human being behind the register, but three days before Christmas, the self-checkout line was backed up, and I was in a hurry. An employee with poor posture stood at his post, watching customers at the self-checkout slide their purchases across the scanner and bag them. Maybe he was grateful he had nothing to do, but at that moment, I projected that he wasn’t. He looked lonely. I nodded at him and asked if the line was open. It

In the swirl of news this week, a story like this might seem innocuous, maybe even a little quaint. The journalists are suing the Pentagon over First Amendment Rights.

We have a bird feeder in our backyard now, which sounds like nothing, but this morning it is everything. Two birds – maybe the mean...

The view in the sunroom where I am sitting this morning ultimately leads to the ocean. I love this view because I am now a beach person,...

Whether they are wandering the streets of Panama or fearful in our own neighborhoods, our response to people who need refuge is important.

Whatever comes around next, I’ll have a book by my side. Reading has saved me in so many ways.

I’m not sure how many of my family members will read my book in its entirety, and that’s okay. I handed everyone a book with a disclaimer.

Finding your people means writing your truth, even if no one reads it. In Oklahoma, snow doesn’t usually hang around for long, but we are...

I'm giving away a few finished crafts so I can write. A few years ago, during the pandemic, I discovered my compulsion for list-making....

I feel hopeful, which seems to make no sense, but here I am - choosing it, hanging on to it, and sharing it.

Those of us who are inching upward in age can be our own worst enemy, especially when it comes to creative projects.

No one makes blinkers for writers. We can’t cloister ourselves off in a room and happily write, never knowing what lies outside our door, ex

It's the morning of November 12, 2022, and this is a story about my birthday girl and her pearls. And a mother who sometimes loses the...

I had a writing goal for last week to finish the structural outline for a memoir about how loss shapes families. Then I found a lost dog....

On my wedding day, at exactly 4:03 p.m., my dad and I began our walk down the aisle, arm in arm, forgetting everything we had been told...

Saturday nights, everyone in our family made it a point to be home for dinner with my dad. He would walk over from his house and stay...

I love to ship things. That's likely the nerdiest thing you've ever heard, but let me clarify: I love to ship things that people have...

My Granny Pearl thought her husband, my Papa, gave too much money to the church. This was an ongoing conflict between the two of them,...

Every book has a story. The idea for Move the Needle came soon after we started Storia Editing and Publishing. My collaborators and I are...

When she was 12 years-old, Martha was forced to leave her biological family in the Volta Region of Ghana and move halfway across the...