FEELING INTELLIGENT

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…

UNKNOWN VARIABLES

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…

STOPPING LANDSLIDES

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…

DISCONNECTED CONNECTION

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…

THE WARMING

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…

ALL OR NOTHING

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 CLOSET FULL OF HATS

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…

INTO THE HOLLOW

Sometimes the news gets to me. I mean how could it not? I’m trying to hold onto joy but it’s like a slippery trout trying to jump from my hands into a frying pan. Some days I still wake up Inside the ache Of remembering Of something I’d promised I’d outgrow It sits on my…

BALANCING THE WORLD

There are a few things I’ve learned in my 54 years of life. I feel like I should have learned more but I got a few truths I live by. 1- If someone doesn’t love you or like you don’t spend energy trying to change that. The only exception is if there was once love…