Some books become moments, and The Age of Miracles was for me a moment. It was a book that I needed--that I didn't know I needed--until after I'd begun reading. It was like the book said Oh, Jackie, let me bandage your wound before you lose too much blood. and I said back Oh, I did not realize …
Caring for What’s Close
At certain moments in your life you may find you don't want to be able to dream about the future. ...which seems like a crazy thing to say. We all love to dream. Right? Dreaming about the future seems to be the preferred pastime of many. It is the one thing we can retain. It …
Micronavigation
A lot of people don't know this, but I used to be an admission counselor. Sometimes I even forget--it seems like a lifetime ago that I was a freshly graduated college student working maintenance at my university, out pulling weeds one day when the Associate Director of Admission called saying they'd gotten my name from the …
People Who See
I can't recommend personal crisis. 😉 Recent life has left me debilitated, uncertain, emotionally strung out. At its freshest, I was convinced I would not survive an hour, much less a day, of the pain. The next moment and the next moment and the next moment were unfathomable. I have felt like a ghost, relegated …
Alternative Medicine [Other Ideas for How to Handle a Bad Night During Summer]
JL to BG (10:22 PM, 6/25/15): i'm out on my front steps. watching fireflies. (10:59 PM): i just want to sit here forever (11:00 PM): i put my feet in the grass. made the earth my leech. --- This post is part of Think Kit by SmallBox. Today’s prompt: Share a photo or paint us …
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These Hands
Hands. I have adequate hands. They are average. Proportionate. These hands: lift/carry/hold/grasp/gesture/fold/open/close In other words: they do exactly what they are supposed to. There is no need to say anything about hands that are as they are expected to be. +++ Why is it that when I loose myself from the keyboard and write by …
2015 in Review
January Published a poem Started my 100 Words writing project Rented two movies at once from a Redbox in a probable snowstorm Continued (over from Dec '14) sewing purses for ca$h money Experimented with midi rings February Upgraded the kids to a bunk bed! Oliver raced "Science Car" at his Boy Scout pinewood derby Bought …
Intrinsic Delight
When I was quite young, I held the belief that I had invented the word "broth." I have memories of lying in my bed, rehearsing sounds, stumbling into that set of sounds and thinking, I’ve never heard this before. Memories of joyously rolling the word around in my brain, over a silent tongue, testing it out. Tasting what …
Goodbye to All That – And Hello to Other Unknown Things
It feels right to end the year writing something, because writer is who I say I am and to act as I self-describe is a comfort. I have hesitated, recently, to write, though, because all thoughts have come to me malformed, reductive, trite: Life is bad. I hate everything. This is stupid. This is so …
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I Really Fricking Hate Birds [Everyone Has a Thing and This is My Thing]
I was searching through my Google drive, trying to find a piece of Serious Writing so that I could make some revisions when I stumbled upon this delight: the fanciful little piece I once wrote a friend in an effort to explain my crazy, bird-hating ways. I offer it here for your amusement. It is rather …
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