It was May 13 last year when I first hit publish. The post was called “Greetings from the Deep South, USA.” Nothing fancy. Just a hello from where I sit. I still remember the ordinary light in the room that morning… and the quiet resolve it took to send the words out anyway.
A year in, “Deep South” still feels broadly right. But I find myself wanting to be a little more precise. I write from a stretch of pine country in west-central Louisiana that resists easy definition. It isn’t coastal, though the Gulf is close enough to shape the air and the weather. It isn’t fully inland either. It sits in a quiet in-between, and I’ve come to realize that sense of in-betweenness matters more than I first understood.
My daddy was from Sabine Parish. My mama is from Ascension Parish. Different sides of the state. Those two worlds don’t argue — they just don’t quite match. Family reunions made that obvious without ever needing to say it out loud: on one side it was fried whole catfish with the tails on, hushpuppies, and unsweet tea strong enough to stand its ground. On the other, spicy boiled crawfish, with potatoes and corn in the boil too, and draft beer in the heat. Same state, different grammar. I grew up somewhere between them, learning how to read both. And that’s probably why I’m drawn to the in-between — in geography, in writing, and if I’m honest, in faith too. Still finding my footing in all three.
A year has passed. I’ve written more pieces than I expected. Some came easily. Others felt like reaching for something I couldn’t quite name yet. I tried different approaches, different points of view. I’m still not sure I’ve settled on the right way — or even what the right way might be.
That uncertainty has been part of it.
A quiet thank you, too, to those who contributed pieces of their own this year. Your words added something I couldn’t have brought on my own. I’m grateful.
The site has a new address: venividiscripsi.blog. Cleaner. Simpler.
The posts still go out to the fourteen people who receive them by email. I think about those fourteen often. And to the ninety-three who follow the Facebook page. The writing also finds its way to Bluesky, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Threads.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for sharing the pieces that meant something to you. Thank you for the encouragement — and even for the honest criticism when something didn’t quite land.
I don’t know exactly where the writing goes from here. Some days I feel clearer about it. Other days I’m just typing sentences and seeing what holds.
Veni. Vidi. Scripsi.
