Chapter Nine: The Stand Off

by | Nov 9, 2011 | Amazing Grace

The Farm gave me the best environment to ponder the nature of Evil and how it came to exist.  Yes, I had been taught that Man sinned in Eden because Eve was tempted and passed the temptation along to Adam.  But this simple story did not answer the question of so great...

Chapter Eight: The Farm

by | Nov 9, 2011 | Amazing Grace

Everyone in the family called it The Farm with capital letters.  An old Florida Cracker style farmhouse already a century old when my grandparents bought it in the Great Depression of the 1930s, it came with eleven acres, a tidal spring or “bayhead,” and...

Chapter Seven: Trapezes and Dog Days

by | Nov 9, 2011 | Amazing Grace

Needless to say, I was ecstatic to go home at the end of the term.  And I was confident my grandfather would keep his promise to see that we didn’t have to return.  But I wasn’t prepared for all the changes in the year we were away.  A year is a long time...

Chapter Six: Violets and Bulls in the Graveyard

by | Nov 9, 2011 | Amazing Grace

After my long illness, deep changes in my metabolism emerged and the beginning of life-long health issues started to manifest in full force.  For the next three decades, I seldom felt completely well again.  This is typical for people with auto-immune disorders, as I...

Chapter Five: Jane Eyre Redux

by | Nov 9, 2011 | Amazing Grace

Mother’s new religious zeal was fine with me.  I loved Sunday school, the stories the teacher told with illustrations on the felt board, and singing, and just the whole feeling.  I was reading the Bible (in bits and pieces), and God was taking care of us now for...