It was a cool, crisp late autumn evening in northwest Florida. We’d just stepped outside from a lovely candlelit house. We were leaving our friend Maria’s birthday party. Like other guests we’d brought a dish. Days beforehand, my boyfriend, Hunter decided he wanted to bring “the pink salad,” a dish his mom made when he … More It Ain’t That Kinda Party
This my excavation and today is Kumran, Everything that happens is from now on……This is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization, It’s the sound of the unlocking and the lift away, Your love will be safe with me -Stacks, Bon Iver There wasn’t much I could do, but be present. I … More Feathers & Stacks
The soft yellow walls of the room emit a warm glow. I am standing next to Mom and Grandma. I must be 15 or 16 months old because there is my brother, Jimmy, all bundled up in a crib & my eyes are about knee-level to Mom and Grandma. I don’t understand what it is … More Earliest Memory
Home is where I want to be….Did I find you, or you find me? -Talking Heads, This Must Be the Place I am fine with there being no travel for awhile. I am fortunate to have a roof over my head, food, family, work, health. The pandemic has be appreciating things I hadn’t thought deeply … More This Must Be the Place
It was 7:00 a.m. at the specialty care hospital. I was visiting my dad before my 20-minute drive into the office. He asked me how things were going with my job. I shared something that I was having a tough time with, a decision I felt was being forced upon me. I told him about … More On Quiet Power: A Diamond in the Rough
My new favorite podcast is OnBeing Project‘s Poetry Unbound. I like that each episode is less than 10 minutes & in that span of time I am always transported. The poems linger with me for days and weeks. This is my post 5 of a 30-day WriteStreak challenge and the idea for this entry came … More Sunday with Sissay
This is post 4 of a 30-day WriteStreak Challenge. Lary, my 2-year old yellow lab officemate, grumbled pleadingly at me around 4:30pm Friday. It was past time for his daily afternoon 45-minute minimum stroll around the neighborhood. Hunter, my husband, Lary’s steadfast walking buddy was away in town & I’d promised both of them I … More Yellow Gumbo
Note: This is post 3 of a 30-day WriteStreak Challenge. It is also from a Story Skills Workshop exercise. Tell me spirit, what has not been done? -My Morning Jacket, Wordless Chorus It was 2008 on a crisp, cool autumn afternoon in Pensacola, Florida. I stepped out of the 4th grade classroom where I had … More Wordless Chorus
This is post 2 of a 30-day WriteStreak challenge. Do you & your best friend or family have a salient catch phrase or code word? One that you can drop which evokes laughter or serves as a mooring, a healthy reminder? When I was in my mid-to-late 20’s & living in Atlanta, I had a … More It’s Just a Turkey
This is post 1 of a 30-day WriteStreak challenge. When my brother and I were 6 & 7, Mom & Dad handed us adult-sized steel crowbars. Together the 4 of us gleefully demolished the interior of one end of our home. Plaster, dust, nails, and boards flew about Mom’s sewing room. Jimmy & I were … More Crowbars for Kids
sheteststhewater 