Author: Lvanderveensmith
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A Voice for the Voiceless
Today I am starting what I hope will be a series of posts introducing you to one writer at a time. That’s not to say that I won’t go back to book lists on themes or other posts, but I would like to take the time to introduce voices that move me and share them…
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If You Aren’t Learning…
IF YOU AREN’T LEARNING AND GROWING, YOU’RE DEAD. Right now. Today. In this very minute it is important that we are all willing to learn and to grow. It is vital for our country, our communities, our neighbors, and ourselves. I write this post with trepidation. I know I am going to say something awkwardly…
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No Comparison
Here we are going into Memorial Day weekend. Another school year is winding down and another summer is just around the corner. Flowers are blooming, temperatures are warming, and we’re… We’re… We’re doing the best we can. We are confused. We are frightened, angry, hopeful, pessimistic, optimistic, bored, overworked, questioning, protesting, obeying, reading and learning,…
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Character of a Leader
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the…
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Let Them Feel Loved
I have been online more than usual in the past week as I’m sure many others have been. I’ve gotten the facts from the CDC, the hype from all manner of sources from the news to neighbors, and the revisionist history that is being spewed. I’ve seen the panic many people feel playing out in…
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Gifts That Give and Give and Give…
One of the trends I am seeing in baby showers these days is something that I love. People are being encouraged to bring children’s books as gifts or in place of a card. I have done extensive reading and research over the years about the benefits of reading, reading aloud, and having ready reading material…
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Small Acts Make a Difference
I know! Long patches of silence and now two posts in one day. I actually wrote both of the posts from today earlier in the month, but put them on a back burner to simmer for a little while. I wasn’t sure about sharing them. I wanted time to think, to ruminate on their purpose…
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The Longest Month
I can find something good in most times of the year. The spring months deliver thawing, trees budding, and flowers blooming. That first crocus that pops up brings with it hope. And of course spring also brings celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day, Palm Sunday and Easter. The summer months have warm weather, swimming, fireworks,…
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What Difference Can I Make?
People wonder about the impact they have on the world, on their country, their community, their workplace, and even with their friends and family. They ask the question of what kind of difference they make in all kinds of situations from the mundane to the extraordinary, the introspective to the altruistic, the local to the…
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There’s Knowing and Then There’s KNOWING
Today’s post takes us back to where the blog started. BACK to BOOKS! Earlier this week I started reading C. S. Lewis The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others’ Eyes. It is a lovely, compact book in which editors David C. Downing and Michael S. Maudlin collected Lewis’s writings from various…
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MISSING!
Before I get to the real message of this post and explain what’s gone MISSING, I would like to say something about past posts. If you have been following my blog, you know that I have written two recent posts about the holidays. While I was writing about Christmas from two different moments in my…
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Ho – Ho – Ho! Keeping Your Humor and Your Spirit Up
Okay, I have regained my sense of humor and balance a bit. In my last post readers were taken on a sorry trip through the depressive mind in the holiday season. It is a hard time for many people whether they are suffering from depression, alone, at odds with family, suffering a loss, feeling the…
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HO—HO—NOOOOO!
***After publishing this blog entry, I thought more about what I had said and what I hadn’t said. This became a very personal and melancholy post because that’s where I am right now (depression is a bitch—even when you are aware and striving to overcome, she’ll still knock you off your feet sometimes). But I…
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Resignationitis – Do You Have It? Is it contagious?
“I’m always late.” “I’m so disorganized.” “I have no self confidence” “I’m fat” “My self-esteem is like zero.” “I don’t know how to use a [computer, smart phone, GPS, etc], and I’ll never learn. “Well, that’s just how I am.” Have you ever noticed how often people say things like this and just shrug…
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A Continual Learning
As much as I love reading, there is an activity I love equally. Learning. I enjoy discovering new things and building my knowledge — about people, history, science, and topics I’ve never even heard of before. If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you might remember that I did a post once where I…
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Words from Lizzie
It’s been a minute since I last posted anything. I have ideas rattling around in my head, but the words won’t form into anything coherent. I look around at the world today. I take in all of the news, the politics, the social media and ways people treat each other. Many can do that, shake…
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Silencing the Shame
I just discovered this blog this morning and have read several postings. Each of them has touched me and offered truth in a beautifully written post. This one resonated with me so much that I’m going to print it or save it to my laptop so that I can read it repeatedly until the message…
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What’s Your Why?
I recently read an online article by Ed Stych entitled “My High School Classmates’ Obituaries Taught Me to Love Them” ( https://tinyurl.com/y59ddy8k). It wasn’t the title that caught my eye. I actually went looking for the article after seeing the teaser below on Facebook. Ed Stych used this quote that he found in Notes from the…
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To Be Seen and Known
“Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.” Elie Wiesel Weeks ago I wrote the words that became the title of this piece. I’m already not sure what led me to write them down or what I intended to write about them (so…
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Moving On and Letting Go
My friend Denise tells me that I take things too personally. She’s right, of course. She’s always right. She listens to me as I talk of the latest thing that hurt me, and then she basically tells me to suck it up. Obviously, I do not go to her for sympathy. She listens, she tells…
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A Mini Memoir in Memes
Sometimes I see memes that really hit the mark and say what I can’t find the words for. Those of you who have read my blog know that it takes stamina and commitment to get through the lengthy writing. I’ve never been good at short and pithy. While looking back at Pinterest files, I had…
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Many Positions Open Now
It’s the middle of June. Most schools are out for the summer and people everywhere are telling teachers how good they have it. I mean, they get the entire summer off – no responsibilities, no schedule to keep, and they get paid. It seems to this retired teacher that now is the perfect time for…
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Take Me Away
“And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes but after a certain point I don’t care what it’s founded on. When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I…
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In Remembrance: Rachel Held Evans
Instead of writing today, I’m choosing to share an interview from 2013 that Rachel Held Evans did with Red Letter Christians. If you have not read her work before, do so now. At least in print her voice goes on.
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There is a God. You’re not it. But who is?
I heard a good sermon last Sunday. Let me explain to you what I mean by that because “good” is one of those words like “nice” or “really” that has so many different meanings that it ends up meaning nothing. Ruth McRoberts Ward, author of Self-Esteem: Gift of God and the blog How to Get…
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I’m Ready to Answer Your Question Now
The other night my friend René asked about my opinion of the whole Jussie Smollett thing – his claims of having been assaulted by a racist and homophobic man and of the shade that had been cast on the claims by then. At the time, my response was that I didn’t know quite what to…
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Single Mom “Strikes a Chord”
I just saw a story on Facebook from Good Morning America. As a single mother, it really struck a chord with me (as the title said it would) especially after a recent conversation where I was expected to excuse bad behavior from my ex even after all these years. Luckily, I didn’t have an ex…
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Confessions of a Recovering Literature Teacher
I have a confession to make. When it comes to my entertainment choices, I like fluff. I like escapism. I like the books, movies, and television shows that are just pure entertainment and not dark, evil, or frightening. I like the ones that cause serious students of the arts scoff. I don’t want monsters, torture,…
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Good Reads – A Year in Review
It’s coming on to the new year. A time of reflection for many and of making resolutions. I don’t do resolutions much but I like reflecting. That’s part of the reason I love recording what I have read in Goodreads and then looking back on them. According to Goodreads, I read 46 books this year. …
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What’s in the Well?
“What’s down in the well comes up in the bucket.” Years ago I had a Sunday school teacher who said that all the time. It offers a truth. If you have ever had experience with the kind of well that allowed you to pull up a bucket of water, you know what this means. …
A Word Aptly Spoken 