Gathering: Homespun Essays from Beech Tree Lane

Arts & Photography

synopsis

Synopsis

A Southern journalist, Dianne Poston Owens has learned a thing of two about people and community—that people want to know their lives matter, their pets won’t rat them out, and that they are not alone. As an observer and recorder of people, places and things, she understands that every day is a new day, and each day is played out in tandem and in gathering. 'Gathering: Homespun Essays from Beech Tree Lane' is a collection of short essays intended to be read for inspiration and encouragement. Owens poses questions and offers photographs that allow readers the opportunity to reflect and pause before forging ahead. Written with charming wit, Southern twang and a deepness that is drawn out by nature, Owens explores what we see, say, and choose, and how we connect to the people we interact with in the “communities” in which we gather.

bio

Author Biography

Dianne Poston Owens is a former newspaper reporter, columnist and editor, serving rural communities in South Carolina for more than 30 years. Though she wandered from her roots, she now lives in the same neck of the woods that her family has lived and died on for more than 250 years ... Along with two goats, at least four chickens, two cats and whatever else lives in the woods!

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Author Insight

Be Ye Kind

The last thing I want to do is sound preachy, as if I have the answers. I write to remind myself of the better way. Of how things ought to be. Of what we, I hope we, aspire to be and do. "Be ye kind" has been ringing in my head for a few years now. It is my backdrop, especially because I love a good retort, a witty and sarcastic play on words. I love to point out the fault in others and ignore mine. Witty repartee. But words hurt. So the voices inside my head, between my ears, have taken to shouting, if need be because I ignore their whispers: Be ye kind. I control my reaction to the "unkind" driver who pulled in front of me. I control my response to the "unkind" lies meant to divide and destroy. I choose to be kind, even if I don't do it as well as I should. This excerpt gets you started on an essay in Gatherings, Homespun Essays from Beech Tree Lane. Check out the book for the rest of it!

Book Excerpt

Gathering: Homespun Essays from Beech Tree Lane

There are golden rules and silver rules, bronze rules and tarnished ones. There are nature’s laws, God’s laws, man’s laws, your parent’s rules, and the school has rules, too. Added to those are the work place habits, accepted practices, and best procedures.

Rules tell us to stand here, in this line. Sit here. There is much we have to learn about proper behavior in a civilized society. We suppress for the good of the whole.

We wear uniforms. We conform. We shush and are shushed in libraries and churches. We put others first. We should, if nothing else, be kind.

There are proper ways to break the ridiculous rules. Seek the proper way. There are proper ways to keep the essentials. Cling for dear life to the essentials.

What would you say to the others left in your wake, if you were leaving today? Here’s what I’d say.

Gathering: Homespun Essays from Beech Tree Lane

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Dianne Poston Owens

Gathering: Homespun Essays from Beech Tree Lane

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Be Ye Kind

Book Excerpt

Gathering: Homespun Essays from Beech Tree Lane

Comment on this Bubble