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Drag White Supremacy Out of the Prayer Closet
Robert P. Jones's book White Too Long hit me square between the eyes. Jones and I come from the same soil, Southern Baptist boys who grew...
Stephen Woodfin
Dec 2, 20212 min read
Tell the Wolves I'm Home
A few weeks ago I finished Carol Rifka Brunt's literary coming of age story Tell the Wolves I'm Home. It's hard for me to pinpoint...
Stephen Woodfin
Dec 1, 20211 min read
Braided Writing
Just the other day, a good friend of mine put me on to a paper he had encountered for class. He mentioned it might be up my ally because...
Grady Jane Woodfin
Nov 4, 20213 min read
Why You Should
Let’s talk about the word should. My therapist told me once to remove the word from my vocabulary, my brain, my whole life. She told me...
Grady Jane Woodfin
Oct 28, 20212 min read
What if You’re Already There?
In my last post about Distant Neighbors, a forty-year conversation between Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder, I touched on the two men’s...
Stephen Woodfin
Jun 12, 20212 min read
Take a Side but Serve the Truth
I finished Distant Neighbors, a selection of letters between Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder, a few days ago and the book has been knocking...
Stephen Woodfin
Jun 10, 20212 min read
What Does Jury Duty Teach Us about Ourselves?
This week for the first time in my life I served on a jury. I had always wanted to serve but found the experience taught me a lot of...
Stephen Woodfin
Apr 4, 20212 min read
What do We learn about a Book from Its First Sentence?
First sentences of books have always fascinated me. It’s probably not too much a stretch for me to say that if the first sentence doesn’t...
Stephen Woodfin
Mar 28, 20211 min read
Learning from the Masters: James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke is the author of forty novels and is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant writers working today. He is now in his...
Stephen Woodfin
Mar 3, 20212 min read
How do you treat old folks?
One of my millennials gave me a calendar for Christmas that contains daily insights about life. Millennials don’t see things the same way...
Stephen Woodfin
Feb 27, 20212 min read
Please Don’t Distract Me While I’m Being Distracted
I don’t know about you, but I find that nowadays I am more distracted than I used to be. As an example, since I typed the title of this...
Stephen Woodfin
Feb 22, 20212 min read
Meditation Techniques along the Way
It’s February 16, 2021 early in the morning as I write this. We are in East Texas and the temperature right before sunrise was -4 degrees...
Stephen Woodfin
Feb 16, 20212 min read
The Truth about Fiction
Long before there was John Wick there was Travis McGee. Travis McGee was the brainchild of one of the most prolific and bestselling...
Stephen Woodfin
Feb 13, 20213 min read
What’s the right way to breathe?
Reading is one of those things that takes you on an uncharted journey. You start somewhere and end up in a new, strange land full of...
Stephen Woodfin
Feb 6, 20212 min read
The Listening Side of Prayer?
Does the chatter of life drive you crazy? Especially in the time of pandemic, when we are searching for a way through the moment, it is...
Stephen Woodfin
Jan 26, 20212 min read
Meditation Tips for Writers and Other Humans
Writers and other humans need all the help they can get to tap into mental acuity and find the peace of insight. I have come late to the...
Stephen Woodfin
Jan 24, 20212 min read
Sometimes Nothing is a Real Cool Hand
My middle daughter a few days ago presented me with a copy of Don’t Take Your Life Personally by Ajahn Sumedho. “Sounds like a cool...
Stephen Woodfin
Jan 13, 20212 min read
Love in the Time of COVID-19
Last Monday, January 4, 2021, my wife tested positive for COVID-19. Her symptoms have been relatively mild, nasal congestion, a cough,...
Stephen Woodfin
Jan 9, 20212 min read
The Freedom of Creative Writing in Obscurity
Through the years I’ve spent a lot of time in the company of writers. Some of them have spent a lifetime writing books, newspaper...
Stephen Woodfin
Jan 1, 20212 min read
The Face That Launched a Million Meditations
By all accounts Shunryu Suzuki was a kind, unassuming person who influenced generations of people with his view of the world and shed...
Stephen Woodfin
Dec 30, 20202 min read
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