December 30, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
A bee in winter travels into the new year finds open flower * * * Happy New Year, friends! I took an online haiku class this fall through St. Mary’s Sewanee. You might want to check out their offerings for the beginning of 2022! Here’s the way I first wrote the poem: A bee in winter travels into the new year quietly in the …
August 1, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
Patricia Eastwood returns to Bacon today with a lovely meditation on the mad, mad world (and two books she’s read recently). From Patricia: Some things seem so routine – the rhythm of the tides, traffic, me walking to my mother’s refrigerator every time I enter her kitchen. If I think about any of these things hard enough – with a critical eye and mind – …
May 15, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
Sometimes I am really late to the party. Will someone please text me when there is important breaking news? I didn’t realize until Wednesday afternoon that Colonial Gas supplied Nashville. When my younger daughter told me, we drove to the Green Hills Kroger and filled up (only regular gas available, and not at every pump). We were due to leave for Atlanta the next …
May 9, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
Another day, another tooth to be pulled at the dentist’s office. My teeth didn’t want to fall out. My orthodontist wanted them gone. Each time, my mom would drive me to the office near Broughton High School. I was scared but trying to be brave. I hated the novacaine shot, I hated the wrenching pull, I hated the bloody mouth afterwards. I’d been to this …
May 7, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
We all need courage for the facing of this hour; for the living of these days. Have a little? Give a little. Need a little? Take a little. This is the way my world works at its best. Courage moves among us like love – or a virus; it is contagious. It wants to grow. Everyday courage can be nourished by a book, and last …
April 21, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
My father, who loved my mother so deeply – and imperfectly – finishes this way. He provides, more than generously. The fruits of his labor reach into the present. Yet he nearly wrecks her with his decline. For five years she has cared for him on her own, in their home. She’s at the end of her rope; no – she has run out of …
April 18, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
In pajamas, I slipped downstairs for a breakfast of champions. I passed my father’s bedroom. He was awake, lying in bed with his hands behind his head. “Good morning, Jennifer!” he called out, as I paused in the door. “When did you get here?” he asked. “Last night,” I answered, so as not to upset him. “We’re so glad you’re here,” he said, and in …
March 7, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
One of these things is not like the other… The dissing of Dr. Seuss; Megxit; Avril Lavigne’s first hit: Pure magic: Yes, it’s a book “on dogs”. But mostly it’s a book about E.B. White. Hearing his voice this week made me smile and inspired that most treasured of emotions – wonder. I want to share it with you! I want to give it to …
February 28, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
Bacon Celebrity Mary Raymond stops in today with her thoughts on Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It. I have some reservations about the book’s title. It feels kind-of – I don’t know – slick. But I have no reservations about Mary at all. And I’m interested in quieting the negative voices in my head. I asked Mary …
February 14, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
Happy Valentine’s Day, dear Bacon friends! Let’s consider – today – the rose. A rose – in particular – imagined by Magritte in his watercolor, Utopia. “Few flowers carry as much cultural significance as the rose… [it] has been used to symbolize a multitude of concepts and ideals, from war to peace and everything in between. Perhaps part of the rose’s universal allure is the …