MetroPulse Stories: Midpoint by Stephanie Piper

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.

Ticket to Ride

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:03:00 -0000

I don’t like crowds. I don’t like noise. I don’t like funnel cake. I don’t like giant cartoon characters looming over me like neon-colored predators, nor do I want to stand on line for three hours to hyperventilate on the Doom Coaster. But before you write me off as a whiny spoilsport, consider this: I hate amusement parks, but I love carousels. Also Ferris wheels.

Story Time

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:06:00 -0000

And then, out of nowhere, the moment arrives when the antique charm of your childhood becomes the stuff of legend.

Get Rich Quick

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:45:00 -0000

One in five lottery winners ends up broke in three years. I read this statistic and shake my head. The people who lose it all are careless and gullible. They make bad investments. They fall for every sob story. They spend like drunken sailors. Not me, I think smugly.

Hurry Up and Wait

Wed, 11 May 2011 20:05:00 -0000

I am standing in the front hall with three small grandchildren, bundling them into jackets against the April chill. It is 9 a.m. on the first day of my week as caregiver. Breakfast eaten: check. Kitchen tidy: not really. Children dressed: sort of.

Spring Thaw

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:30:00 -0000

It’s here again. The evidence is overwhelming. The pink tree outside my building is in bloom, and the grass is full of those little blue flowers that are weeds but still incredibly delicate and heart-stirring and seem to cry out for a few lines of Wordsworth.

Release the Hound

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:59:00 -0000

Clicking my way through TV’s vast wasteland (300 channels and nothing to watch) on a recent evening, I met an old friend.

After the Fall

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:40:00 -0000

A recent tumble down a steep driveway has left me with a broken foot, a painful shoulder, and a bad case of powerlessness.

The Living End

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:46:00 -0000

What do we have to look forward to in the new year? Well, for starters, there’s the end of the world as we know it. According to the North Carolina seeress promulgating the current prediction, it’s slated for May 21. This auspicious date happens also to be the birthday of my husband, my youngest son, and Mr. T, which makes it easy to remember.

The Art of Waiting

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 20:12:00 -0000

Here’s my favorite thing about Christmas: Advent. As a season, it has a lot to recommend it. It’s shorter than Lent. It does not involve presents, cookies, or inflated expectations. There’s not much decorating, except for a wreath and some pink and purple candles.

A Luddite Listens

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:39:00 -0000

In a world of relentless technology, it’s a sound that hasn’t changed since my childhood. It’s the whistle of the train that brought my grandmother to visit long ago, heralding her arrival as we waited eagerly on the platform. It’s the whistle of the train that brought me to summer camp in Vermont, winding through the Hudson Valley and the farmland of upstate New York. It’s the whistle of the train that took me to college, leaving Penn Station in the early evening and depositing me at dawn at a tiny station in rural Virginia.

The Gift That Endures

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:19:00 -0000

Four score and ten has a Biblical ring to it, although not many people in those days made it to 90. Even by today’s long-lived standards, it’s a big number.

Old School

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:44:00 -0000

The world, I have heard it said, is roughly divided into two groups of people. Those who go to their class reunions. And those who don’t.