Jenni Simmons is the Editor of the <a href="http://www.arthouseamerica.com/blog">Art House America Blog</a>, and a creative nonfiction writer. Her writing has appeared in Comment Magazine and Proximit
I’ve been surrounded by musical types all my thirty-four years of life. My Dad
plays piano and guitar, my Mom can do a lovely harmony, my Grandfather was a
Baptist minister of
“This is, mind you, suburbia.”—Annie Dillard, “Living Like Weasels”
I do a lot of walking in the suburbs of Katy, Texas, where I live, just west of
Houston. I walk to see
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver
In 20 days I will turn 40. Like everyone else in the world, or maybe
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep,
that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. —1 Thessalonians 4:13,
ESV
I
This year feels significant — it has my attention. I turned 39 in November, the
last birthday in a decade marked by several years of suffering, painful blows to
my health. Other years have
![[From the Archive] A Medieval Christmas (Downe in the Heart of Texas)](/content/images/size/w960/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/k4.jpg)
