Confession
After a Lifetime of Lies, It’s Time to Face the Truth I have been avoiding this post, but doing so is taking a physical toll, and I can’t put it off. A small, shivering wave of anxiety comes over me…
Pattern Recognition
I face an important decision each morning when I get downstairs and lift the blind on the window behind my desk: do I awaken my computer and check in with the world or live in blissful ignorance for a little…
Which Words?
I could fill your inbox with words, day after day. Most of the posts I write and publish now end up at about half the length at which they begin: and that’s just counting the words that I type. The…
Just Read the Book
Well, I must say that I was surprised to find a (Collecting Thoughts Press) post from The Before Times (March 2019: remember what the world was like then?) that made me smile and made me think, Yup. Still applies. Since…
Being Honest with a Friend Should Not Require Courage
When my fourth child was almost a year old, I had an important conversation with a friend, but I had no idea, at the time, how important it would be. Perhaps I should look her up and reach out again,…
Are You Threatening Me?
The husband of a sister-in-law wore a t-shirt emblazoned with a vintage political “pairing” to the most recent family Christmas gathering: “Reagan/Bush 84.” This fellow and I were standing in the kitchen, where the conversation was lagging. Therefore, I decided…
Freedom is Hard to Hold
Explanations are for English Papers In the process of putting away Christmas decorations recently, I washed five cut crystal vases and two candlesticks and arranged them in pleasing groupings on the mantel. There’s still a big empty space in the…
Taking a Safety
I got to the computer yesterday by way of Stephen Harrod Buhner’s Ensouling Language, a book I am still s-l-o-w-l-y making my way through (and now that I’ve shared it with Dennis, it’s often in his office, where I don’t…
Late Nights and Bad Memories
It’s a gorgeous, sunny day with blue skies, white snow, and green trees out my window. The driveway could use some shoveling, so I’m sure I’ll be out in the fresh air before the dark descends around 5:00, which feels…
Knock and It Shall be Opened to You
I wrote this poem back in 2016, but I find new meaning in it now. If I could enter your office,if the door were unlocked,if you’d let me in,I would stand in a cornerand watch you work. If the door…
The Best I Could Give
I recently started following a poet on Instagram. His name is David Gates, and today he shared verse that stood out. It relates to the question, When do we, as humans, become afraid to ask for help? As Gates points out, we’re…
Out in the Cold
C.S. Lewis retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche in his powerful novel Till We Have Faces. This is my second reading of the book, and everything’s different for me now that I’ve moved my starting point and see clearly…
