Mark Twain once called courage the “mastery of fear.” Jeanette Hardage shared the poem below about courage with her daughters many years before she published it in Faith and Other Matters, clearly hoping to pass that quality on to her children through her words. Her …
Read MoreOne More Night
Having spent some time recently with an elderly relative at a memory care facility, I was newly moved by Jeanette Hardage’s description of a family member’s thoughts in this difficult situation. Her poem below, which was included in the Faith and Other Matters anthology, expresses …
Read MoreSilent Night
When you get past the alleluias and the glorias, songs about the birth of Christ often convey the idea that our response should be one of silent contemplation: “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” “My Soul in Stillness Waits,” and of course, “Silent Night.” Jeanette …
Read MoreA Holy Place
Jeanette Hardage, perhaps like most people, seems to have felt God’s presence most deeply in the quiet places of life. In Faith and Other Matters, she juxtaposes the poem below with the Psalm 37:7 admonishment to “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for …
Read MoreLove Just Gives
One of Jeanette Hardage’s earliest published poems, dating back to at least 1967, seems appropriate for the season of Lent. During a time when Christians contemplate the awesome love of God, and many emphasize selfless charity towards others, consider her very brief and simple, yet …
Read MoreChoose Joy
One of Jeanette Hardage’s daughters recently came across an unpublished poem in Jeanette’s handwriting tucked away inside a piece of old furniture. She had probably not intended it for publication, as it contained none of her usual word choice edits. With candor she shares how …
Read MoreDialogue with the Holy
Jeanette Hardage greatly admired Kathleen Norris, author of Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, a book which Jeanette reviewed for two magazines in 1999. In her meditation on Truth, Norris says that “poetry, like prayer, tends to be a dialogue with the holy.” Jeanette seemed …
Read MoreA Summer Daydream
The start of summer seems like a good time to indulge in a little daydreaming. Enjoy this brief poem by Jeanette Hardage on the topic. (This one is also found in Faith and Other Matters). Daydream Grass-backed I lietraveling vapor trailsfirst-class mind-wand’ringunravels mingled memories Free …
Read MoreThe View was Worth the Climb
In a December 1961 newsletter, Jeanette Hardage wrote that the highlight of the family’s year was a pack trip taken with two burros in the high Sierras the previous August. While I’m not sure all of the participants relished it as much as Jeanette did, …
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