I want to tell you of my position, of my stance and who I am. But who I am and where I stand is best affirmed by negation, by my stepping aside and my identity reducing in strong humility.
Apophatic Aphorisms:
Walking Honestly Through Holy Week in Pandemic
[Photo credit: Misha Friedman/Getty] April 9, 2020 Writing Group Essay, inspired by “Untitled,” by James Baldwin: Lord, when you send the rain, think about it, please, a little? Do not get carried away by the sound of falling water, the marvelous light on falling water. I am beneath that water. It falls with great force … Continue reading Walking Honestly Through Holy Week in Pandemic
The Beautiful Indifferent
The things that ground me are the things that don’t care, don’t know, aren’t affected by the virus(es) in our world. While I automatically assumed one of the last canary in a coal mine positions, I know I must not always be one who’s squawking, “No! Look here! See the numbers! Understand how they work! … Continue reading The Beautiful Indifferent
The Size of the Moon in My Eye
My mother once asked how big the moon appeared to me to be. “The size of a dime,” I said waiting patiently for context. Her millisecond longer than usual pause was difficult, I remember, to decipher. She then said, “I heard today that however big the moon appears to you to be … Continue reading The Size of the Moon in My Eye
Entry from our January 2020 Proprioceptive Writing Group
Inspired by this excerpt from “Exercises on Themes From Life,” by Alice Walker, read at the beginning of the our time together today: iv To keep up a passionate courtship with a tree one must be completely mad In the forest in the dark one night I lost my way. ————————————— Part One: My Love … Continue reading Entry from our January 2020 Proprioceptive Writing Group
Yelping Dog/Inner Castle
Proprioceptive writing inspired by Mending Wall, by Robert Frost Wall between and within, out-side and beyond. Our realities are laden with walls, not only keeping us in but keeping us together. Binding us. Preventing us. Connecting us in some paradoxical way. Sometimes I hate this, the barriers between this world and the next, defining this … Continue reading Yelping Dog/Inner Castle
Amazon Burning
About 20 years ago, back at the turn of the millennium, I was set up on a blind date with an attractive, independently wealthy, otherwise sweet guy who, early in our conversation, talked of his business plans in the Amazon. He was pleased, humbly proud, and excited that initial steps were underway. … Continue reading Amazon Burning
A Writing Exercise: On and Partially Out of Doom
Yesterday morning, a friend led three other friends and me through a writing exercise during our second annual Seminary Sisters’ gathering. We’d all been together for over a day by that point. Updates had been shared, gaps filled, comically bad food eaten, and our hearts and minds swirled as we sat in a circle around … Continue reading A Writing Exercise: On and Partially Out of Doom
“Only the Good Die Young…”
Billy Joel said, with considerable cynicism, that only the good die young because goodness can’t be maintained. One must die young in order to have a chance of dying while still good. The purity culture—driven by those who believe we are born “innocent” and thus fashion their daughters with virtual chastity belts at Purity Balls, … Continue reading “Only the Good Die Young…”
Of Hurricane Harvey and a Hydrocodone Haze: A Short Reflection One Year Later
It’s raining heavily outside right now, and yet it sounds nothing like it did in the days before I wrote, from the comfort of our well-worn couch, this piece on recovering from trauma that I shared on Facebook. It was all I had to offer as I convalesced from surgery as my friends and neighbors … Continue reading Of Hurricane Harvey and a Hydrocodone Haze: A Short Reflection One Year Later
