I have reached an age where my heroes have become human.
There is a softer kind of magic to believe in now—
That a body can bend
That a heart can turn sour but ripen again
That friendships are meandering, and loyalty sometimes means dormancy and patience. Continue reading Your destination is on the left
Having spent much of my adult life as a teacher (and all of my childhood as a student), I tend to measure time in school-years. Continue reading Another Year Done (Two Poems for the End of the School Year)
For me, poetry has the power to heal, to transform. It is how I shake out the cobwebs of past shame and through open the curtains to shine light upon my darkness. Continue reading Writing to Heal and Finding My Breath
So we decide to quit drinking alcohol… are we destined to be ‘Recovering’ for the rest of our lives? Continue reading From Recovery to Discovery
I was an alcoholic for over 25 years. During that time I also lived my life like a normal person. Continue reading Three years ago I decided to quit drinking
It began as an adolescent: I envied her popularity. I envied the magnificence of her giant bangs. I envied the ease of her flirtation with boys. I envied the way she wore her Z Cavariccis. I envied her athleticism, her tanned skin, her confidence, her status. I looked around at the girls who were my peers and I measured myself against them. In my mind, I always fell short. I turned the negative energy of envy inward, silently berating myself. Continue reading Envy
It has been 2 years, 8 months, and 7 days (approximately) since I made the decision to break free from the grip of consistent alcohol abuse.But alcohol has crossed my lips since then. Continue reading Let’s Talk About Sober, Baby
I walked with my friend into her darkness yesterday. She is in the midst of raw pain from a new divorce; lonely, shaken, exposed, angry, wild, and new. She was breaking loose from years in shackles. She needed to at once curl into her tenderized soul and nurse the open wounds of failed dreams and yet spread her wings in the updraft of full abandonment. I followed her into the darkness like a cautious … Continue reading Into the Darkness
Here’s to the mamas
who sniffed the necks of their newborn babies and those who
could finally stop pacing when the adoption papers came through. Continue reading To all the Mamas (a toast)
January 7, 2018 is the day that I made the decision to quit drinking.It seems like such a small thing when you look at the words of it: I Decided to Quit Drinking. Like I just made a decision and then that was that and all was good in the world. But of course, it’s so much more nuanced than that. I was SO AFRAID. It was like I was about to say Goodbye to my entire Being; like I was going to strip off all of my layers of self that I had spent the last 25 years of my life crafting around me and start over bare and nude. Continue reading Finding The Razzle-Dazzle: My Origin Story
Waking up Razzle-Dazzle 