#influence

Teamwork

John Donne wrote, “No man is an island Entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.” This statement is...

An Old Farmer’s Words of Wisdom

One of my earliest childhood memories is of sitting on the couch beside my grandfather (we called him Pappaw) in his house while he...

Two Adages and Your Writing

“Write what you know.” “Your writing becomes like what you read.” Since I began writing for publication back in the late 1970s/early...

Chivalry Still Lives!

Just when I had about concluded that true chivalry was dead, I saw the living embodiment of that very quality. It wasn’t exhibited by...

One Special Lady

We buried Virginia Mae Dietterich, my wife’s mother and my mother-in-law, on Monday. (In case you’ve been wondering, that’s why I haven’t...

Tell Them While You Can

This week marks my wife’s third week of school already, not counting the week of in-service training, and the stories she shares when she...

Nobodies

I have often felt like that. I’m not famous for anything. I’m not widely known. Even when I go “back home” to the community where I grew...

Reflections on Mother

Mother—Hazel Margaret Summers Peterson—came from good stock. The Summers family of Heiskell, Tennessee, were special to me, and, although...

The Power of a Story

On a day when our writing might not seem worth it, when we are not seeing fruit like that which our mind imagines we should, when we...