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Category Archives: Books
A Tiny, Fierce Light That Lives On
Celebrating the indomitable spirit of my sister Lisa Stanley. Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Beauty, Blooming, Books, Childhood, Courage, Family, Love, Tribute, Women, Wonder
Tagged cancer, Covid, Darcus Montgomery Allen, Father's Day, Knoxville, Lucinda Franks, memoirs, Pulitzer Prize, Robert Marganthau
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Stop. You Look Fabulous!
A few ideas of how we can nurture the joy within us during a global pandemic and a time of division and fear. Continue reading
Posted in Backyard Nature, Beauty, Blooming, Books, Fabulous, Happiness, Home, Joy (Joie de General), Knoxville, Op/Ed Thoughts, Uncategorized, Wonder
Tagged Antidote: Happiness for People who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, Aura Cacia chamomile, Aura Cacia Geranium, Avene Thermal Spring Water, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Frank Cabot, Hanalei Lip Treament, Help! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done, Johnny Clegg, moonflower, Natalia Lafourcade, Necessaire The Body Serum, night blooming cereus, Oliver Burkeman, Pure Magic Carwash, The Garden Conservancy, The Gardener, The Mavericks, Union Avenue Books
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Gluing Together Our Broken Places
I got my first dose of the Covid vaccine today in a drive-through operation at Ft. Sanders Hospital West here in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was a flawless experience except they did not set up a second shot right away on … Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Beauty, Blooming, Books, Creativity, Family, Freedom, Happiness, Home, Ideas, Op/Ed Thoughts, Women, Wonder, Writing
Tagged Covid, Covid vaccine, feathers, LifeLines, Melissa & Doug, Melissa Bernstein, narcissus, vaccine, Victor Frankl
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Under the Influence
A possible way forward in the middle of turmoil and strife: adventure, balance, curiosity, dreams, education, and being found together. Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Books, Childhood, Courage, Education, Family, Friends, Happiness, Ideas, Knoxville, Music, Op/Ed Thoughts, Tribute, Uncategorized, Wonder, Writing
Tagged adventure, balance, curiosity, dreams, Education, Fred Rogers, Great Atlantic Shoe Company, Hannah Gadsby, Jeanette Winterston, John Mellencamp, Lady Vols Basketball, Mr. Rogers, No Better Than This, Save Some Time to Dream, The UT Lady Vol basketball program, Won't You Be My Neighbor
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Also Known As . . .
When I was born in East Tennessee, oh, quite a few years ago, my parents Roy and Arzelia Allen named me for a dear friend of theirs named Anna Marie. In the Southern way, their friend was called by both names, … Continue reading
Love, Honor, and Compassion
Grandfather, Sacred One, teach us love, compassion, and honor that we may heal the earth and heal each other. ~ Native American Ojibwa Prayer Perhaps growing up poor gave me a natural affinity for Native Americans and other people who were … Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Beauty, Books, Childhood, Courage, Family, Freedom, Friends, Ideas, Love, Op/Ed Thoughts, Photography, Women, Writing
Tagged Buchenwald, Civil War, compassion, East Tennessee, homo sapiens, honor, Jacques Lusseyran, love, Marshall Plan, Marye's Heights, Native Americans, Ojibwa, the Confederacy, tribalism, tribes, Vivian Maier, World War II
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Harper Lee’s Handlers Kill a Mockingbird
Ever since I read that To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee’s lawyer Tonya Carter and publisher HarperCollins were planning to publish the first draft of a novel she wrote 57 or so years ago, I have been sick to death … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Op/Ed Thoughts, Screen, Uncategorized, Writing
Tagged Alice Lee, American Masters, Atticus Finch, Desegregation, Go Set a Watchman, Gregory Peck, Harper Lee, HarperCollins Publishers, Mary Badham, Michiko Kakutani, Nelle Lee, Pulitzer Prize, Racism, Scout, segregation, Tay Hohoff, The New York Times, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tonya Carter
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All the Blogposts I Didn’t Write
Yes, I have been spending too much eating, sleeping, dashing about, and in general thinking about, but not writing, blogposts. Guilty, guilty, guilty as charged. Here are just a few of the blogposts I didn’t write: Divine Celtic and Eastern … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Courage, Food, Happiness, Music, Op/Ed Thoughts, Screen, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing
Tagged Birdman, blogposts, Chief Dan George, Comanches, FDR, Lone Watie, Loreena McKennitt, Quanah Parker, S. C. Gwynne, Teddy Roosevelt, The Empire of the Summer Moon, The Outlaw Josey Wales
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Birds a la Hitchcock, Ballanchine, and Boogaloo
On Wednesday I woke up and looked out our front door to find snow, ice, and swarms of birds (and I mean hundreds, not just a tweeting few) raucously flip-flapping as if they were reenacting a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s … Continue reading
Posted in "Pets", Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Books, Childhood, Courage, Freedom, Love, Screen, The Arts, Writing
Tagged Art house cinema, Birds, Boogaloo and Graham, Books of the Times, Downtown West, Dwight Garner, George Ballanchine, goshawks, Helen Macdonald, Live Action Short Films, Pet chickens, Robert Frost, The Academy Awards, The New York Times, The Oscars
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Wanting More
Exquisite joy has come my way from two directions in the last 24 hours, and both of these treasures came from the printed word–from magazines to be exact. As long as I can remember, reading has been my salvation; beauty … Continue reading
found objects creative 