Archives of Inspiration

Fall 2021: from the editor

A few years ago at the end of my semester of student teaching, I wrote a manifesto for my high school students, encouragement for how I hoped they would live their lives. I made it into a sign for them to hang in their classroom. I also made myself one, and it has become my […]
2 months ago

Saying “I Do:” Quiansha + Joseph Pierce

You’ve found the person with whom you want to spend your time as you live through this life, and you’ve made it official: You’re getting married. Congratulations! Now, it’s time for planning your wedding.  Here, five couples with ties to Southeast Missouri share the unique details of their journey of saying yes to each other […]
2 months ago

Saying “I Do:” KK + Tanner Beussink

You’ve found the person with whom you want to spend your time as you live through this life, and you’ve made it official: You’re getting married. Congratulations! Now, it’s time for planning your wedding.  Here, five couples with ties to Southeast Missouri share the unique details of their journey of saying yes to each other […]
2 months ago

Saying “I Do:” Anna + Chazz Upton

You’ve found the person with whom you want to spend your time as you live through this life, and you’ve made it official: You’re getting married. Congratulations! Now, it’s time for planning your wedding.  Here, five couples with ties to Southeast Missouri share the unique details of their journey of saying yes to each other […]
2 months ago

Saying “I Do:” Brooke + John Schnurbusch

You’ve found the person with whom you want to spend your time as you live through this life, and you’ve made it official: You’re getting married. Congratulations! Now, it’s time for planning your wedding.  Here, five couples with ties to Southeast Missouri share the unique details of their journey of saying yes to each other […]
2 months ago

Saying “I Do:” Brynna Downing + Tyler Boardman

You’ve found the person with whom you want to spend your time as you live through this life, and you’ve made it official: You’re getting married. Congratulations! Now, it’s time for planning your wedding.  Here, five couples with ties to Southeast Missouri share the unique details of their journey of saying yes to each other […]
2 months ago

Saying Yes to Forgiveness

By Sarah Geringer It only took me 20 years to learn this lesson: Saying yes to forgiveness every day in your marriage is a prescription for peace. How I wish I had started practicing this in year one — no, week one — of our marriage. I would have experienced much less heartache and much […]
2 months ago

Going Home Again

By Phoebe Pohlman It’s strange the things I can talk myself into if I try hard enough. I will suppress my own true and deep desires to make my life fit a version of something I think I want.  I began questioning my carefully-crafted plans of moving away from Southeast Missouri to begin my teaching […]
2 months ago

Say Yes: Here’s a place to start

Yes. Such a simple, yet powerful word.  Maybe you said it when the right one asked for your hand in marriage. Maybe you said it when your soul told you to walk away from the one who wasn’t right. Big, small, momentous and inconsequential, how we use the word yes can shape life as we […]
2 months ago

ritual: letter from the editor

Χάος is one of my favorite Greek words. Not only is it fun to say, pronounced from the back of the throat kind of like hawking up a loogie, but it also translates to “chaos,” and describes perfectly one of my favorite Greek phenomenons: recess. At the school I taught at in Athens, when the […]
5 months ago