MetroPulse Stories: Midpoint by Stephanie Piper

Sneak Preview: Reeling Through Life

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:17:00 -0000

There are those who believe that when you die, you will be required to watch a movie of your life. The whole story will be there, reel after reel projected on some celestial screen.

Year One: Tracking Grief's Learning Curve

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:59:00 -0000

A year ago at this time, I began to feel the earth shift under my feet. My cell phone rang in a hotel lobby, and I sat down on a leather bench and listened to my sister tell me that life as we knew it was about to change.

Chopper Down: Hovering Over the Truth

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:00:00 -0000

So here’s a news flash. The latest research indicates that helicopter parents are doing their children a grave disservice.

Hard Times: It’s All relative

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:35:00 -0000

I am beset with a host of first-world problems, domestic disasters so trivial in the overall scheme of things that I am ashamed to list them, even to myself.

Soul Searching

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:33:00 -0000

Eight days after Newtown, he told us that it would actually be a good thing to go to heaven. He had not been told of the event.

Family Tree: Sense Versus Sentiment

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:05:00 -0000

Maybe we’ll skip the tree this year. We won’t be home for Christmas, so really, what’s the point?

Write Your Mother: Savor the Season

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 14:25:00 -0000

When this column appears, my favorite month will be history. Pumpkins will vanish from front porches, and store windows will start to sprout the first plastic Santas and evergreen garlands. The light will shift from muted gold to the pallid gray of winter. The last of the roses will make their final, valiant stand against the frost.

Clear Pictures: Taking the Long View

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:50:00 -0000

Two college students are talking outside my window. They are discussing their futures. “I’ll be an old man before that happens,“ says one. “I’ll be, like, 30.” His friend considers this. “Oh, you mean really old,” he says.

Wild Kingdom: Nature Comes Home

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 13:35:00 -0000

The general consensus is that the snake has gone.

Mood Management: Lessons from a Beginner

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 20:00:00 -0000

Here’s what I learned on my summer vacation: There is no more potent antidote to bleak introspection than a 2-year-old girl in monkey pajamas.

Learning From Loss

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:00:00 -0000

In the past seven weeks, many people have told me many things about grief.

Time in a Bottle: Give Sorrow Words

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:22:00 -0000

My share of my father’s ashes doesn’t take up much room. Only a lifetime.

The Tie That Binds

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:04:00 -0000

I came as a corporate wife, dragging my heels, nurturing a secret hope that this would be a short stop on the way to another big city like the ones I’d left behind. Knoxville was still basking in the glow of the late World’s Fair when I arrived, but downtown was seamy and depressing,

Seeking the Mindful Moment

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:24:00 -0000

I’m over multi-tasking. I realize that it’s a highly prized skill here in the second decade of the 21st century, right up there with extreme couponing and ice-road trucking. But for me, the thrill is gone.

Is Geography Destiny?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:36:00 -0000

I’m wondering if maybe it’s time to go home.

Give Peace a Chance

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:12:00 -0000

There was a time when peace meant the absence of conflict. Now it’s invoked to describe every imaginable condition from manageable hair to financial security.

Party of 10

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:17:00 -0000

I’m not interested in naughty and nice. Let someone else worry about that. Me, I’m counting sheets and towels and frozen lasagnas.

Saints Preserve Us

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:34:00 -0000

My personal saints have no marquee value. They do not appear on any calendar or stained glass window. There are no statues of them in parish churches. If I told you their names, you would not recognize them as spiritual giants.

Checking the Life Lists

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:08:00 -0000

Wisdom, I have come to believe, lies in accepting one’s limitations while not using them as an excuse for laziness, whining, or general laxity.

An Unlikely Vols Fan Knows the Score

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:34:00 -0000

So here we are again in the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness that Keats wrote about, the long, languid autumn that redeems the brutal summer. The light has begun to soften, filtering through leaves whose green is deeper now, edged with red and brown. The days are drawing in.