Preface of “If You Promise You Won’t Tell”
Preface of the Memoir If You Promise You Won’t Tell There are frequently irreconcilable conflicts between loyalty to our parents and being true to ourselves. —Alice Miller If You Promise You Won’t Tell...
View ArticleRainy Days
We’re having a rainy day here in the Shenandoah Valley. It’s an all-day soaker. A month ago we needed a rain like this when our lawns were turning brown in the drought we were having. We were praying...
View ArticleSoul-Restoring Trip to the Northeast Kingdom and an Update on the Amish in...
David and I had not left the state of Virginia since March when the pandemic became a stark reality for all of us. So a few months ago, we planned a trip to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. We...
View ArticleReflections on Times Past and Present
A little while ago, I received a rare treat — a four-page handwritten letter. It came from Ruth, an elementary school pal. We first attended the same school when we were third graders, the first year...
View ArticleChristmas Greetings from Our Home to Yours
I recently came upon a piece by Richard Rohr about the season of Advent that made me think. I especially like this part: Remember, when we speak of Advent or preparing for Christmas, we’re not just...
View ArticleIf You Promise You Won’t Tell
This week I took a break from work for an at-home writing retreat with the aim of finishing my manuscript, developing a book proposal, and writing a query letter for my new book If You Promise You...
View ArticleGetting to the Other Side of the Pandemic
“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not...
View ArticleUpdates
My dear blog readers, I have not forgotten you. My life has been full to overflowing. Let me count the ways. We’re going through lots of transitions at work as the church begins to gather in the...
View ArticleThe Truth
It has been three and a half months since last I wrote a blog post. Thank you, Pamela Lakits, for asking me where I’ve been and why I’ve not been blogging. Ever since I read your email, I’ve been...
View ArticlePart 1: Preface for “If You Promise You Won’t Tell”
David had the idea of creating audio files of excerpts of my memoir. I decided to include an audio file in this post. I would love to know if you enjoy it. Preface There are frequently irreconcilable...
View ArticlePart 2, If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir
Saloma Miller Furlong · Part 2, If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir Chapter 1: Early Remembrances I believe… that our memories are part of one great memory, the memory of Nature herself. ~ William...
View ArticlePart 3, If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir
Saloma Miller Furlong · Part 3, If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir Chapter 1: Early Remembrances, continued There are several incidents that happened when I was very young in which Mem’s telling...
View ArticlePart 4: “If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir”
Chapter 2: In the Shadows There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow… — George Eliot Interspersed with the “normal” memories of my young...
View ArticlePart 5 “If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir”
Continued from Chapter Two: In the Shadows Out of nowhere, Datt got a job. He helped with chores morning and night on the Hale farm up the road by hauling pails of milk from the barn to the milkhouse....
View ArticlePart 7: “If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir”
Continued from Chapter 3: Mem Buys and Baby and a House Susan Sakura from next door spent a lot of time that summer “teaching school” in the barn across the yard from our house. My siblings and I were...
View ArticlePart 8: “If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir”
Continued from Chapter 3: Mem Buys a Baby and a House Somehow my parents managed to live in a four-room house with all five of us children until the summer Simon was born. One night at the supper...
View ArticlePart 9: “If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir”
Chapter 4. Do-Bees and Don’t-Bees [T]oxic parents compare one sibling unfavorably with another to make the target child feel that he’s not doing enough to gain parental affection.[…]This...
View ArticlePart 11: “If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir”
Chapter 5. Smiling into My Future Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe When I entered first grade, I was still the only...
View ArticlePart 12: “If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir”
Chapter 5: Smiling into My Future, continued I was still in first grade when my youngest sister Katherine was born. For reasons I don’t understand, I have no memories of the circumstances surrounding...
View ArticlePart 13: “If You Promise You Won’t Tell: A Memoir”
Chapter 5: Smiling into My Future, continued The summer after my first grade, Datt was looking for a paying job. I don’t know whether he had the motivation himself to go and look for work, or if Mem or...
View Article
