A Lesson & A Carol

Merry Christmas from the Rabbit Room! Can you believe we’ve made it this far?

This Christmas is a complicated one, of course. We certainly wish you joy and merriment, and yet there are countless good reasons why you may not feel altogether cheerful. So on this Christmas Day, we’d like to offer you a lesson and a carol, so to speak—meaning, a poem by Andrew Roycroft and a song by Jess Ray, each of which speak specifically to where we find ourselves this Christmas.

Honesty and Community: A Conversation with David Taylor & Jason Gray

This past year has given us all a hard shake, and the season of Advent has been a welcome relief. It seems we’re experiencing transformation personally, within our own homes, and collectively, as a nation. We’ve all been brought face to face with our own vulnerability, fears, limitations, and need for community. Just so, it was a privilege to capture this timely conversation with author and scholar W. David O. Taylor and singer-songwriter Jason Gray, as they met for the first time to explore the topics of honesty and community in their recent works.

Rabbit Trails #28: Christmas Edition

Jonny Jimison is back with a special Christmas edition of his beloved comic, Rabbit Trails.

Like Milk on the Stove

I learned a French saying the other day: “surveiller comme le lait sur le feu.” It means “to watch like milk on the stove.” As someone who has all but given up on creamy oatmeal, I can appreciate with the French that if you walk away from a saucepan of milk on the burner, bubbles, toil, and trouble will inevitably ensue. I’m glad you could come by today. My grandmother’s candy is dairy-based, so I’ll be standing here a while. Grab some tea, move that cookbook off the barstool, and sit with me while I stir.

The Habit Podcast: Renee Mathis

The Habit Podcast is a series of conversations with writers about writing, hosted by Jonathan Rogers. This week, Jonathan Rogers talks with Renee Mathis, fellow writing teacher and mentor at the CiRCE Institute’s apprenticeship program.

Harry, Did You Know?

One evening in December of 2018, Kelsey and I had just finished a riveting chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We had been steadily plodding through the entire series for a couple years now, reading aloud to one another, reliving the tale that had so palpably awakened our imaginations as kids.

As I brushed my teeth that night, I reflected on how far we’d come—indeed, how far Harry had come. And perhaps it was the season’s influence, or perhaps it was the prompting of Fate herself, but I suddenly found myself murmuring under my breath, to the tune of that beloved song: “Harry, did you know?”

Advent, Week Four: The Peace of Pierced Souls

“He wants us to have peace. Happiness. Not to bring suffering on ourselves.”

5&1, Part 10: Make Haste to Adore

If the challenge behind last week’s 5&1 (life in a mechanised world) was the relative scarcity of music to fit the topic (although perhaps not as rare as some might assume), this week’s is the opposite. Christmas has been inspiring composers to reach new heights for centuries. There’s just too much.

Unfulfilled Delight

I started a most fantastic book last week, but I’ll get there in a minute.

Eight years ago, I stood over a sliver of kitchen counter in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, pale and tight-eyed with lack of sleep in the blue light of a computer screen. I was still in my uniform, feet aching in subpar combat boots because I walked everywhere and didn’t know the good brands yet. Outside it was icy and dark, and I had to be up at 0530 to ride my bike to PT in the snow, but I was making breakfast. Because it was morning in Alabama, and I was straining to maintain a connection with my younger brothers from literally half a world away.

The Habit Podcast: Reagan Dregge

The Habit Podcast is a series of conversations with writers about writing, hosted by Jonathan Rogers. This week, Jonathan Rogers talks with writer and letter enthusiast Reagan Dregge.

Now Available: Fin’s Revolution, Part III

The Fin’s Revolution Podcast is back with the next 15 chapters of the tale!

In Defense of Happy Endings: Thoughts on Joy and the Hallmark Channel

My son and a group of his friends got together a few days ago and marked the start of the holiday season with a “hate-watch” marathon of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. I was genuinely torn when I heard about their plans for the evening. On the one hand, I could kind of relate. I first encountered the Hallmark Channel through my father, the most tender-hearted human I’ve ever known. For the last decade or so of his life, Dad spent each free evening seated at a card table, his attention equally divided between whatever jigsaw puzzle he was working on and whatever movie was playing on the Hallmark Channel. Each touching ending, each improbable-yet-predictable reunion, each romantic resolution would prompt another rush of happy tears from Dad. For my part, when I visited Mom and Dad I spent the evenings wandering in and out of the family room, shaking my head, rolling my eyes, and growing increasingly disgusted with the nightly line-up of cheesy, sentimental TV drivel. So my son came by his impulse to hate-watch honestly.