The world has a way of teaching us to hide what we feel. Don’t cry. Don’t get angry. Don’t make people uncomfortable. Smile if you can. Keep your voice steady. Be easy to be around. So we learn to tuck our feelings away. We pretend we’re fine when we’re not. We swallow the words that…
The holidays are wonderful. But they can also feel like one long list of obligations. Places to go. People to see. Food to make. Gifts to buy. Things to remember, forget, and remember too late. Somewhere in the middle of all of it we can forget to stop and enjoy the people and moments right…
My life is a process Of inhaling and exhaling Of grieving the passing of Rejoicing in the newness of Feeling the wisdom of pain Wearing the comfort of love Hiding from myself While searching high and low Before finding myself Just to lose myself Over and over and over again Being fearful of what’s to…
Life is unpredictable. That’s one certainty I’m comfortable declaring. I’m 55 and it’s taken me this long to understand something I didn’t fully grasp at 18. There is only so much we can control. If you have the right kind of brain you can predict with some sort of accuracy what might happen next week…
There is a phrase I say to myself quite often and it is that we were never promised easy. I say that when I’m struggling. When I am feeling sorrow. When things are completely off the rails uncertain. I’m not sure where it came from but it has to be from my Christian faith. Jesus…
Sometimes it feels like the ground, the sky, even your own soul are falling away and you’re left face to face with all the pain you spent years trying not to feel. You tell yourself if you pretend hard enough that it didn’t happen. That you will be fine. Spoiler Alert: You won’t be. So…
I want to write a big long essay full of all the reasons my boyfriend is worth voting for. He has written here for me several times before. Always captivating. Always inspiring. My favorite storyteller. If you want to support us this would be an excellent way. We can vote one time for free each…
Every opinion is a feast For a ready made Come and go audience Applause available No matter the wisdom And we’ve given our kids Hungry pockets They carry the world inside Connection… Feels less connected They confuse being seen For being known Being followed For being loved Being heard For being understood Being kind Kills…
There is a beautiful language That doesn’t need words It is written with heartbeats In our calm breaths In the laughter that echoes In the bone deep warmth Of a love that stays In a world that keeps turning Where clocks tick off the seconds Where people come and go But in the space between…
I have known heat that left marks The kind I reached for because For a moment the pain of fire Was louder than that of heartache But there is a different kind of heat The kind that heals us From the inside out An invisible blaze That doesn’t scorch the skin But warms the parts…
Years of healing has led to valuable insight about growth. Things I’ve been through I wish I could help other people through. Liquid streams of blurry salt Are coating every single syllable Salt shakers emptying on tables After everyone has long left Where ants make hills that glisten From leftover vowel’s discarded They are the…
A little over a decade ago my nervous system overloaded. It was powering a whole city and maxed itself out. Today though it is back online and more stable than it’s ever been. And I’ve found peace. It cost me though. Dreams died. People left. Hope stepped aside while healing became a full time effort…
A poem about long distance relationships
I’m bossy because I’ve been told that I am. I’m a narcissist because I’ve been told that I am. I am ugly, unkind, impatient, selfish, weak, overly emotional, irrational, and an ignorant liar. And those people are right. I have worn every one of those hats at some point in my life. I know how…
The words on the door said Only rule: Don’t sit with sinners And it was a room without chairs Just a room full of people Thousands pointing at each other Arms tired Fingers bloodied and raw Stitching scarlet letters Onto wrinkled, worried foreheads Everyone wore one None could read their own They called it justice…
