The term “empath” may be familiar to you in reference to the Myers-Briggs scale, indicating someone who is intuitive or feels things. However, if you’re an empath, it’s likely that you already know it. I was an empath even as a small child but didn’t know it for many years because I wasn’t conscious of […]
Relationship
My Daughter’s Country
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. […]
Rip
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 […]
It’s Not Really Work
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 […]
Myrtle Irby, My Grand, The Great
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 […]
She’s Not Flying Yet
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 […]
Reflections
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, […]
Community
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 […]
Who inspires you to be a better human?
Who inspires you to be a better human? Is it your pastor? Your partner? A relative? Superhero? Your mom? It’s not an easy thing to find in today’s culture in America. Inspiration? Hope? Every where we look, we see polarity. Arguments. Bullying. People who profit from and support the suffering of others. How deeply do […]
“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW SHITTY THIS IS?”
That was the question written on his sign as he stood on the side of the road at the exit ramp.
The Importance Of Picking A Damn Good Baby Daddy
Dysfunction in my family of origin went unnoticed by me until I started college. Silence in my childhood home was only interrupted by the most mundane of conversations – “what’s for dinner?”, “Unload the dishwasher before I get home.”, “Get your shoes before you miss the bus.” My mother had a new arts and crafts […]
