by Barbara Smith | Mar 26, 2023 | Painting & Writing
A Guide and Goad Other people’s words guided me this week — and goaded me to keep looking for my own. Maybe what I read will refresh you, as March departs like a soggy lion. Well-trained Christians make it a habit each night to look over the past day and see where... 
by Barbara Smith | Feb 10, 2022 | Painting & Writing, Understanding the Times
Finally, I finished The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, learning dimensions of WWI history that Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey left out. Given, what J.M. Barrie reported about what led up to the Great Influenza, and all that... 
by Barbara Smith | Oct 11, 2021 | Painting & Writing
So, the other day I had a casual conversation with a younger woman who likes writing, but is reluctant to wade into words, arranging them in such a way that satisfies herself and communicates her thoughts. My analysis — not her’s. Writing is . . . tricky. Being... 
by Barbara Smith | Sep 3, 2021 | Personal Pigeonholes, Understanding the Times
Dodging a bullet is a loaded description nowadays. We dodged a weather bullet generated during the aftermath of Ida, a destructive deadly storm that stretched from New Orleans to New England. Many did not; as of now forty-five people lost their lives, and many more... 
by Barbara Smith | Aug 25, 2021 | Painting & Writing, Understanding the Times
Looking back to this time last year, in my journal, I have some impressions, given the times that are today. This time last year I was way more productive; listening to several books, and completing several paintings — I rarely left the sunporch. Productive as I was,...