Valley Center

Valley Center

Sometimes I think about a little one-room school my brother and I attended in northern Oklahoma– wheat, alfalfa, and cattle country. The school’s name was Valley Center. The teacher was an unmarried woman, Miss Virginia. The school was her life and she lavished time, thought, and attention on it and her thirteen pupils, grades one […]

Learning, Rules, Fun

Learning, Rules, Fun

 I tend to look back sometimes, and, lately I’ve been thinking about a little one-room school my brother and I attended in northern Oklahoma– wheat, alfalfa, and cattle country. I close my eyes and see it plainly in memory. The school’s name was Valley Center. The teacher was Miss Virginia. The school was her life […]

I’ll Bet When You Were in Kindergarten…

I’ll Bet When You Were in Kindergarten…

I’ll bet when you were in kindergarten, you were a real stinker–the kind that caused your teacher to pull her hair and your classmates to giggle. You know why? Because some of those traits still linger, hanging about your personality like so many threads dangling from a well-worn jacket. These were my thoughts this morning […]

Chapter 4, Shadow on the Rock

Looking back on that night later, Miss Georgia was never quite sure how she and Jase Marshall made it through. She remembered spreading a sheet on the sofa and coaxing and lifting and supporting the wounded man until he plopped down with a loud sigh. She cut off his shirt where blood had dried and […]

Chapter Two, Shadow on a Rock

Chapter Two The trail Miss Georgia followed dipped down into a small ravine. In rainy weather, a creek meandered through, but now only a few pools of water puddled in the low places. This wet weather creek dead-ended farther back in the woods, in a cave. Miss Georgia had only been as far as the […]

But, With All the Getting, Get Insight

But, With All the Getting, Get Insight

  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about sight. Not foresight or hindsight or second sight, but another of the sight family–insight. This may be the most important sight of all, because it’s next door to wisdom. We can have all the sights available and all the knowledge possible, but if insight is missing, the […]