Juneteenth: a community affair
For the third year in a row, First United Methodist Church in Waynesville is teaming up with community partners to celebrate Juneteenth — the federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. But while the event has taken place at Lake Junaluska in past years, this year, the community is invited to celebrate on Academy Street just outside of FUMC for a day of music, games, storytelling, food and good company.
Searching for a seeker: The fearless life and tragic disappearance of Melissa McDevitt
Flitting about her apartment on Vancouver Island, Melissa McDevitt had already packed her bag in preparation for the long journey from Canada’s west coast back to Haywood County.
Notes from a plant nerd: Happy Holly Days
There are many different plants that Appalachian mountainfolk have used for centuries in their decorations and celebrations on or around the winter solstice.
Here’s to inflation-fighting holiday gifts
According to a recent U.S. News & World Report article, “The 15 Richest Counties in the U.S.,” five of these counties are next door neighbors to Washington, D.C. These are the bedroom communities for the capitol, the home of politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists, and others who have their finger in the federal pie and tell the rest of us how to live.
5 Ways to Manage Holiday Stress
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? Or at least that’s what the Hallmark movies tell us... While the holiday season is traditionally known as a time of cheer and fun, you can’t argue that this time of year can be incredibly stressful and mentally taxing. Whether it be finances, family stress, the pandemic, or gathering preparations, the holiday season gifts us its fair share of stressors and anxiety.
Creating the holiday meant for me
Glennon Doyle is a favorite writer of mine and currently hosts a powerful podcast called “We Can Do Hard Things.” Doyle says what screws us up the most is the picture in our heads of how things are supposed to be. From birth, we’re offered images, words, models and examples of the types of people we’re encouraged to one day become.
This must be the place
It’s 11:16 a.m. Wednesday. Sitting in the lobby of the Dunes Inn & Suites on Tybee Island, Georgia, I can finally collect myself and write this column, seeing as the Wi-Fi is only good in the lobby and not the motel room (#132) at the back of the property.
A unique kind of holiday
Every year of our girlhood, my sister and I woke up early on Thanksgiving Day, sat at the kitchen barstools in our pajamas and helped my mom break up cornbread and biscuits so we could make my great grandmother’s dressing recipe. Throughout the day, the house would fill with smells of turkey, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. Sometime mid-morning, my grandparents would drive up from Travelers Rest, S.C., to join in on the festivities.
No sleep until January: Retailers rejoice over bustling holiday season
The holiday shopping season tends to be a stressful time for shoppers as well as retailers with large crowds, long lines, mounting tension and explosive tempers as everyone is in a rush to get everything on their list.
This must be the place: Won’t somebody tell me what I’m doing here? Won’t somebody tell me where I’m going?
Finishing up my scrambled eggs and black cherry yogurt, I washed the dishes in the small sink. Dried off my hands and took another sip of my coffee. Mosey over to my ragged desk in my humble abode, in front of a dusty window with a slight view of Russ Avenue in downtown Waynesville.
