Mistakes

I shouldn't be grouchy about responding to any of these prompts, because I wrote many of them, and I think I wrote this one (Andrea [my Writerly partner-in-crime] -- please correct me if I'm wrong. And if so, you're in trouble. jk, jk). I don't like making mistakes. I spent last night thinking about (worrying, …

Recipe For A Moment

One part ordinariness--a car ride, a meal, a walk--swirled together with a second piece of ordinariness--the setting sun, a thread of conversation, your unprompted smile--and left to steep, ordinariness removing ordinariness, two like entities cancelling out likenesses until they are no longer only together but one, the one unforgettable. Today's prompt: Write a recipe for …

Evening Negotiation

It was nearly impossible not to pregame this piece--it was nearly impossible not to try to catch a line in my head so that when I hit the timer to start the five minute countdown that I would have something to dig into. The cat has just moved to the top of my feet. She …

Redistribution

I thought I could cheat it a little, today's prompt, because Matt and I started watching the movie Sound of Metal about heavy metal drummer, Ruben, who suddenly loses his hearing. And in many early scenes of this movie, we watch action overlaid with silence as the reality of hearing loss settles over Ruben, and …

One Use of Clutter

Perhaps clutter is not just mess but the compilation of good intentions piled up on tables or filling drawers? Things that will make sense later, or used to make sense and we think will again, and so they stay, they stay and molder inside our optimism. I have those--those drawers of aspiration and memory, my …

Small Medicines

In 2020, I read palliatively. Dozens and dozens of inspirational fiction novels by an author first introduced to me when I was a child by my now-many-years-gone grandmother. The scrawlings left for me by my kids on their bedroom chalkboard, or folded-to-miniscule post-its hidden on my pillowcase, or stuck to my bedside lamp. The stickers …