Dear Daughter, Today is the day that we begin the work of building this country for you. I’m sorry that you spent four years watching adults tear each other apart, and feeling confused and frightened about your country. I’m sorry that you experienced a pandemic that was handled incompetently by those trusted to protect you.… Continue reading My Daughter’s Country
The year of ripping, of goodbye, death, of the word “cruel” and being able to say “you are not who I thought you were”, the year of sickness, when the whole world stopped. The year I broke open, and my guts spilled out onto the paper, into the earth, when I learned that spirit is… Continue reading Rip
She was born a caregiver. She’s so smart and can literally do a thousand things at once, and juggle every one down to the detail in her mind. She went to nursing school to learn a trade that would provide an income for her 4 kids and family, but nursing was really her destiny. She… Continue reading It’s Not Really Work
I brought the roses to her from Memphis on Tuesday. She couldn’t smell them so I rubbed one of the blooms across her cheek so she could feel how silky it was. They are so beautiful in the vase sitting across from her bed. This morning when I awoke to go into the kitchen, I… Continue reading Myrtle Irby, My Grand, The Great
This tiny little bird is going to gather a few more stories here with us before she flies. I’m not sure why that’s surprising. After all, she parented two small boys singly after their father was killed. She put herself through nursing school when women didn’t really take on careers like that. She married again… Continue reading She’s Not Flying Yet
A decade ago, starting life over. Love, work, school, life. The culmination of a few years of darkness. Painfully shedding the self I had known for 40 years. Moving, kicking and screaming, into the unknown ahead. Midway to end, learning, growing. screaming, learning. Graduating, working, parenting, travelling, learning. New friends, new family, a soul mutt,… Continue reading Reflections
Depression. We are surrounded by it. According to AFSP.org, for 2017 alone, there were an estimated 1,400,000 suicide attempts. In 2017, there were 47,173 REPORTED suicides, with no estimate on the ones that were unreported. In 2015, suicide and self-injury cost the US $69 Billion. Celebrities get the spotlight in the news regarding suicide, and… Continue reading Depression: The Invisible Killer
Today I celebrate 25 years sober. In a week, I’ll celebrate 52 years of age. It’s a good marking point for reflecting on a life affair with sobriety. I managed to survive the first 17 years without alcohol by honing my sarcastic and comedic skills. I coped with the shit show of my life by… Continue reading A Life Affair With Sobriety
It was a day that altered every life in America in 2001. A day that taught me what patriotism looks like. A day when there was no right, no left, no Republican, no Democrat. It was a day that we were all Americans. A day when parents stopped everything to rush to their children.… Continue reading September 11
It’s a word typically used to describe a characteristic of a group of living beings. It’s been used in many different, and quite varied, settings. “Homeless community”. “Church community”. It’s a way that people categorize themselves, identify themselves, and label themselves and others, good and bad. Some communities carry a negative connotation. Some make people… Continue reading Community
