Author Archives: Jaclynn Loibl

I will write this post poorly. I will write this post poorly. I will write this post poorly. As you can see, I’m brainwashing myself. My perfectionist tells me I’m a sucky writer, and I feel bad for anyone who has clicked all the way here to read this. Since you’re here, I’ll tell youContinue reading “A Soft Place to Fall”

Strung between three thorny salmonberry stalks was a bird’s nest. A lime green cotton candy swirl mixed with a witch’s hair-looking kind. On my walk, I bent one of the stalks and peered inside. Nothing. The back of my head, although not green, is also a gnarled nest. From too much stocking cap wearing. ThoughContinue reading “From the Book”

At 1:15 PM, Dave showed up at the back door of my office, just as a client would. “How was your day? Good to see you. What lovely weather we’re having,” I quipped, leading him down the hallway and up the stairs as if we hadn’t seen each other just hours before. The reason forContinue reading “Positively a Preschooler”

Ladies and gentlemen, enter Helen Reddy (imagine a Vanna White hand gesture accompanied by billowy velvet fabric folding into itself like a cathedral’s accordion). “Yes, I am wiseBut it’s wisdom born of painYes, I’ve paid the priceBut look how much I’ve gainedIf I have to, I can do anythingI am strong (strong)I am invincible (invincible)IContinue reading “Aftershock Smoothings”

“I can’t do stream of consciousness,” a lover of books, words, and a client I counsel told me. “You can’t do stream of consciousness?!” I asked, much too accusatorily, as if I were being asked to teach breathing. The task was simple: to write a letter to their fear, to this jump-scare horror movie feeling,Continue reading “Mourn the Gap”

Do you know water striders? Am I saying that right? The waterborne daddy-longlegs or crane flies, those slender creatures with stilts-like legs that skim across the water’s surface, not quite angelic, but certainly not as clumsy as a moose learning to stand. Well, picture those critters, but thousands of them. Can you visualize it? Now,Continue reading “Sagebrush Showdown”

You know that silly giggly thing that Pee Wee Herman does? That hiccupy, heel-kick-sounding sound? When typed phonetically, it would make one’s fingers corkscrew and spring off the page like T-I-Double-G-er. Better yet, it’s the sound that millions of fairies’ buttery yawns create when orchestrated in unison. And if you can imagine all that magic,Continue reading “What the Whiskers?!”

Admitting defeat, or rather a need for help, I Googled “How to not fail as a parent,” which led to the page “7 Ways to Enjoy Parenting More.” The second tip is as obvious as the dentist’s reminder to floss and is one I easily miss: “Put down your phone.” So Dave and I bothContinue reading “And She’s Up!”

There are animated dancing forks, a talking candelabra, and Cogsworth the clock being projected on the wall of our living room. Unlike a regular TV whose sound is at the device, the projector’s sound is spewing two feet from my left ear. However much I’d prefer a cozy spot on my bed in the quietContinue reading “Projecting Parenthood”

Nine, filled to the brim with second-hand clothes, garbage bags are strewn about my house. Two in the car, three in the entryway, one at the top of the stairs landing before entering my bedroom, and three in the bedroom. On my body is a black T-shirt with an outline of a white skull. IContinue reading “A Golden Ticket”