JOY JOURNAL BLOG

books, romance, spiritual life

A little holiday romance

In case you missed it last year -- and don't mind reading on a device -- here is a link to my 2024 Christmas romance. Stand Still & Chill is a Hallmark-style novella set in the mountains of West Virginia. It is stored on this website as a free read. Follow the links at the… Continue reading A little holiday romance

spiritual life

On Advent, 10 foot tall Bumbles and blinging all the way

There was a season not long ago when the mention of Christmas brought the same snarl to my heart as a child opening a shaker of glitter in my kitchen would. Why? Just why? "Festival of Consumption," I grumbled inwardly while outwardly going through the motions expected of the mother of small children. Then I… Continue reading On Advent, 10 foot tall Bumbles and blinging all the way

books, spiritual life

Revisiting my mother’s Jesus

My mom's been gone more than three years now. That's long enough for me to have winnowed through most of her possessions, but not all. There's still some papers. I somehow have the cemetery lot deeds for literally everyone in the family -- as if the land where they are buried might be repossessed at… Continue reading Revisiting my mother’s Jesus

gardening, outdoors

My neighbor’s hive

“The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.”― Henry David Thoreau I've never been sure who tends them. I suppose that someone does even though I'd like to imagine them coming and going from a hollowed-out tree on the hillside above our home. Wild honeybees are largely a thing of the past. Not… Continue reading My neighbor’s hive