Category Archives: Writings

At bedtime, using the Google speaker in her bedroom, Evelyn broadcasts into the house. From the living room, I hear the chime, then the British AI voice announces: “It’s from Evelyn’s bedroom speaker.” A moment later, Evelyn’s own voice follows: “Is it Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday?” Dave answers back with theContinue reading “Finding My Muse”

Anyone posting political opinions or memes is getting a 30-day snooze on Facebook. I’m over it. The reactionary scroll-read-react routine doesn’t work for me anymore. So I’m stamping out little fires, one by one. I’m reclaiming my peace, guarding it like I’m posted up in my own fire tower. It’s not okay to be soContinue reading “Being a Big, Big Girl”

Social media is a joke — a wildfire of chaos that toxifies people’s hearts and minds. It’s too much. And yet it’s digested, unfiltered, like air. Some people can differentiate between fact and flamboyance, but others are swimming in the deep end without the necessary skills or a flotation device. More and more I’m clearContinue reading “Releasing With Swift Kicks”

Our mail lady putters down the country road, both windows rolled down, cigarette dangling from her fingers, voice booming over Bluetooth. She’s always talking to someone. I can’t tell if she lights up multiple cigarettes along the route or if it’s just her routine when she hits our stretch of road. In the past month,Continue reading “Crashing Into the Sun”

I’m hesitant to say I’m in love with my life. I might jinx it. But I am. From the rocky path that doubles as a French drain, to the deck for barbecuing that only exists in my imagination, to the two baby longleaf pines we planted today—it’s all gravy, baby. Speaking of gravy, I madeContinue reading “It’s All Gravy, Baby”

A handful of frozen blueberries, miniature Halloween gummy bears, and Hershey’s chocolates—my evening sweet tooth satisfied—I can kick back and watch my first-place Seattle Mariners take on the Houston Astros. During last night’s game, curled up on the couch, legs crossed and a cushion propping him up in his comfy stance, I said, “Isn’t itContinue reading “Center of the Circle”

I can get singularly focused, eyes on the prize, and relationally, it might come off bullheaded. The bullseye rarely is all I see, but with some goals, values, and stars we shoot for, the outer rings of failure are not an option. I abutted a layer of four-inch-thick, sludgy compost against the concrete pool deck.Continue reading “My Mini Grand Canyon”

You know that clean, chiseled, aesthetically perfected feeling of a fresh haircut? Or the just-for-you fit of a brand-new piece of clothing—tags still on, not too snug, not too bulky, straight from the fitting room? That’s my refrigerator right now. Its facelift came after my 11 p.m. impulse to pull out every last item, wipeContinue reading “Getting Into the Spirit”

I’m debriefing with myself. Sitting in quiet curiosity, wondering what the hell built the bedrock of insecurity and self-doubt I’ve been standing on. For one, I believed I owed people. The people who followed me, who found value and pleasure in what I created—I felt indebted to them. So even when my psyche crumbled likeContinue reading “Spidey Senses”

My left butt cheek—the spot right between the upper thigh and that crease—is sore. The sensation is somewhere between a rug burn, an achy muscle, and a sunburn. And I’m not even a little mad about it. That’s because…I got to ride a horse today! I love horses. Growing up, I had a horse namedContinue reading “Saddle Sore and Spellbound”