On the Feel of Fall Mornings Both Present and Past
I went for a walk the other morning, two dogs in tow, through the damp and musty trees on a path up the canyon near my home. It had been…
Author Archives: Shelli Spotts
Shelli Spotts
Shelli is an advocacy writer and creative writing teacher. She loves to spend time with her husband (usually in the garden) and their four almost adult children. She also loves to sew (usually for the local community theater), to read, to write, and to drag her family outside to look at the sky. Shelli is passionate about poetry, Broadway show tunes, and telling stories -- of ourselves, our families, and our communities.
Recent Posts by Shelli Spotts:
On Seaglass; or Another Way of Knowing the World
Lead Photo Credit: Javel Williams via Unsplash A year or two ago, on a sticky summer seaside stroll, I walked along a beach, hand in hand with my husband as…
It All Started With a Tree
Lead Photo Credit: William Milliot via Unsplash A Japanese maple, in colors of scarlet, flame, crimson, and rust, its lace edged leaves delicate and just a little ragged, was sitting…
On Flights
Lead image photo credit: Pascal Meier via Unsplash I dropped my daughter off at the airport yesterday. We pulled up to the curb, the one painted yellow to warn you…
Finer Than Frog’s Hair and Other Bits of Nonsense and Joy
“Finer than frog’s hair,” he used to say. Which is not a pun, exactly. Neither is it a dad joke, except for the way he told it with a twinkle…
On Radical Domesticity
“The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort towards wholeness.” Madeleine L’Engle I have been many things in my life. I have taught orchestra to…
On a New Economy of Care
My phone rang last week. It was an unusual enough experience in this modern day and age as to be immediately either alarming or annoying, and I was half-way between…
On Snow in Spring and Small Simple Things
When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people, we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us. bell…
On Roots and Rivers
If you look the right way you can see that the whole world is a garden. Frances Hodges Burnett We live, my husband and I, in a cozy neighborhood at…
On Slow Seasons and Snow Angels
It snowed last week, a gentle fall of powder that covered the ground, softened the world, made indistinct all the hard shapes and the sharp edges. It lay, undisturbed, for…
On How We Learn the Dance
Of all the prayers that I have given since my children were born, one that I seem to have forgotten, overlooked, and neglected to include in the litany of devotion…