I am not a good dancer. That doesn’t stop me from tearing it up in the kitchen to our famed 80s music mix. I used to dance a lot more, and in public; despite my introvert persona, I rarely missed a school dance as a teenager. Music has always moved me, literally. During college years …
Swans and Ducklings: A Story of Self-Image
Not long ago I came across an old driver’s license issued to me in 2000, when I was 27 years old. Driver license photos do not tend to be the most flattering likeness of a person, but as I peer at a seventeen-years-younger me through the reader-portion of my progressive lenses, I think to myself, “Huh. …
Rocks Calling: Confessions of A Petraphile
Rocks call to me. I could say simply that I collect rocks, but that feels reductive. Or perhaps even the opposite of what is true. Rocks collect me. Just this morning, The Husband mumbled that if I bring one more rock into the house, the floor might collapse. Picking up stones, pebbles, and rocks is …
Divining The Key
This spring marks five years of freelance writing. It was a slow start. I spent those first months reading and researching, while meeting my nephew’s school bus. Over the following two years, I cultivated business relationships and my time slowly began to fill with freelance work; I was ramping up for a big start to …
Summit Thoughts
I am not below ground. I am far up above in the sky, on a peak of rock. On the peak of me. Getting here was not guaranteed. Climbing over rocks and logs, feet moving over loose stone, knotty roots, and slick pine needles. A push from behind is needed to surmount a sizeable boulder. …
Cancer: A Retrospective
This post has been a long time coming. At this writing, it has been a little over two years and nine months since I was first diagnosed with melanoma. Treatment involved: 2 general anesthetic surgeries within 2 weeks of each other. The first a procedure to remove a crescent of my ear, put the ear …
Adventures in Babysitting: Boys of Summer
Summer is over for nephews K. and D. <sad trombone> Summer 2016 was ‘all-baseball all the time’ as both boys are on travel teams. Practices started way back in March. For months, if they weren’t at a game, they were at practice. I don’t know how my sister does it with them on separate teams …
Racism in Black and White
“What? WHAT THE F*CK?!” This is not a good way to start the day. Shuffling into the kitchen, putting on the kettle, flipping on the morning news—this is routine. The news flickers on and the announcer prefaces an upcoming clip about an officer-related fatal shooting of a black man. This is becoming routine. A horrifying, …
