Sophfronia’s Blog
Kind Words
A blog about what I find amazing, smart, beautiful, or just plain fun.
Why Ruminate Matters
My issue of Ruminate arrived in the mail today. I’m happy to see the swooping cursive capital R on the cover. Just inside the front is a painting of a stoic heron gliding over blue water toward a full moon. The presence of a new Ruminate is a signal: it’s [...]
My Thoughts on Rob Bell
My latest contribution to Ruminate Magazine's website shares a bit of the long and winding road that is my ongoing spiritual journey. The latest stop on this trip included a visit to New York City to hear Rob Bell speak in the latest rendition of his "Everything is Spiritual" tour. [...]
What Back to School Means to This Writer
Summers tend to reshape my writing life. My husband is a teacher so when school ends in June both he and our 11-year-old son, Tain, are home and my carefully honed routine dissolves within days. That didn't mean I stopped writing altogether this summer. I just had to accept writing under different conditions. [...]
The Importance of Forgiveness
Last week I was working on an essay I planned to submit as my latest contribution to Ruminate Magazine's blog. Then I read Roxane Gay's "Why I Can't Forgive Dylann Roof" in the New York Times. It bothered me so much I woke up thinking about it the next morning [...]
On the Gospel and the #CharlestonShooting
I've been reading Michael B. Curry's Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus. Today I read this, which of course led me to think of the members of Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church who were indeed following the Gospel witness of welcome when they welcomed a stranger into their [...]
Ruminating on Grace
Ruminate Magazine Cover Recently the editors of Ruminate Magazine asked me to be a contributor to its blog. Ruminate is a fine literary journal produced in Fort Collins, Colorado that publishes short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art that resonate with the complexity and truth of the Christian faith. I've read and admired it [...]
Talking Frat Boys, Books, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
That's Bruce Barber between me and Mark Oppenheimer, and Brian Slattery is on the right. I recently had the pleasure of throwing in my two cents on cultural news of the week as a panelist for WNPR's Colin McEnroe show. Mark Oppenheimer, a new friend and writer of a regular [...]
Writing to Reach a Broader Audience
If you're on Twitter and a lover of books you've probably come across #LitChat, the popular discussion about books and their authors that takes place twice a week. Recently LitChat's founder, Carolyn Burns Bass, asked me to be a guest host on the chat discussing what I feel are some [...]
