Amy M. Schaefer
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From the Front Porch

I am an "accidental blogger". When I launched my writing career in March of 2014, one of the things that I decided to include was my journaling, which I have always found to be a comforting and therapeutic endeavor.  It was a big risk to open myself up in such a public forum, but it has taught me that, for the most part, we share far more experiences than we think. It's comforting to know I'm not alone!  (*the "Button Text" is the link to my first novel)
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Front Porch Philosophy

7/2/2014

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"No front porches. My uncle says there used to be front porches, & people sat there sometimes at night, talking when they wanted to talk, rocking & not talking when they didn't want to talk. Sometimes they just sat there and thought about things, turned things over. My uncle says the architects got rid of front porches because they didn't look well...They didn't want people sitting like that, doing nothing, rocking, talking; that was the wrong kind of social life. People talked too much & they had too much time to think. So they ran off with the porches." --Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451


Many a philosophical conversation has taken place on a front or back porch, when the sun is setting, the crickets and frogs and cicadas are singing, and the fireflies light up the skies like flickering Christmas lights. Perhaps something hanging in the heady humid air of summertime in the south makes for a good breeding ground of deep thoughts like raising children, growing crops, corruption in politics, religious views, etc., particularly because it's too hot to move and revving up your mind doesn't involve physical exertion. My happiest childhood memories involve nights like these, where I listened to the grown-ups solving all the worlds' problems, usually while snapping beans, shelling peas or shucking corn.

Now that I'm the grown-up, which by the way ain't all it's cracked up to be, I carry on this southern tradition with family, friends, neighbors, and sometimes alone. No place on Earth, at least that I've been to, sounds quite like rural North Carolina in the summertime at night. The world is still full of troubles I can't solve, but that doesn't deter me from imagining all the things it could be, we could be, I could be, if exacting change was as simple as people lazily front porch sittin' and working all our "junk" out, while being seranaded by the laughter of playing children squeezing out the last vestiges of daylight, and Mother Nature's little choir of buggy critters.

*Image from etsy.com.

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    About The Author

    I grew up in rural North Carolina. When I was only nineteen, I moved away and became a military wife. My only aspiration at that tender time in my life was to create an adult life that "fixed" all of the "injustices" of my childhood. Secretly, however, I wanted to reach for the sky! I wanted to be a writer and find ways to "save the world" (my mother used to say, "You have Save the World Syndrome".). Mostly, I wanted to matter.

    Since then, I have learned to reach well beyond what I ever dared to think was possible. I've learned not to allow fear to stop me from whatever future I want to create!

    What keeps me grounded? My Tribe! What provides the wind beneath my wings? A well of reserves filled with unstoppable passion!

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  • Amy M. Schaefer, Writer
  • Blog: From the Front Porch
  • Novels
  • Short Stories
    • Children's Books
  • About the Author
  • Contact
  • Photo & Art Gallery