A few weeks ago I got a lovely e-mail from a lady named Rachel. She was apologizing to me for using the name ‘Gatherings’ for her blog. Even though she didn’t intend to name it that…it’s just these darned computers that sometimes tend to go their own way instead of following our lead. She was baffled as to why she could not change the name to her intended name. And, I understand that so well. How many times have I asked this computer to please do the right thing…to please obey me…to just make sense of the craziness I typed in and read my mind and do what I want. I KNOW some of you have been down that same street.

Anyway, today, I went back to her blog and began reading her stories. Friends, you have to go there and read. BEWARE! You will stay a long time because her writing is so captivating. And, as I told her, when I asked her permission to send you there, I know these people she writes about…you probably know them too. If you have had any dealing with folk from the ‘country’… or if you grew up there or even visited there, you will relate to her well. This is a quote from one of her first posts:

“And that is where my voice is—the South, in the old days and old ways, with visits to older kinfolks, one with his own still, another who ran a gristmill and supplied several counties with meal and grits. Years of Church suppers and small town showers and gatherings and preacher poundings and weddings and funeral feasts and looking after the new mothers by supplying their families with three meals a day til they were “back on their feet” have sealed my voice into a time and place that is mostly memory, mostly centered around kitchen and table, and all about Family. I’m the Peas and Cornbread voice, mostly, upholding the plain and the simple, because that’s who I am and what I know.”

So, you will find Rachel’s blog here. The name of her blog is Lawn Tea. I will send you off with one piece of advice…start at the very beginning. I did yesterday, and I laughed, and remembered things so similar to her experiences. You will not want to miss any of her posts!