You know when you've tried hard to do what you believe is the right thing, but it blows up in your face? There's a mess, and it looks impossible to clean. But I'm trying to get back to using my time for art and writing. I'm going to be selling my wares at the Violet …
You know when something happens that you very much didn't expect and don't want? It's been a painful week. These days it feels as if the bullies are winning everywhere, on the world stage and in the private rooms. I'm exhausted and sad and angry and several other emotions besides. But as they say, the …
sunflowers in Bulgaria Happy Baba Marta! Happy Grandmother March! If you click on the link, you can learn more about the holiday. Unsurprisingly, I was fairly pleased to learn of a holiday with my name in it, even if I wasn't a grandmother. The tradition of giving someone a martenitsa on March 1st, and then …
Mom died suddenly. She was there, and then she wasn't. An aortic aneurysm killed her at 45. Now Dad is 89. He's not sick and bedridden, but currently, because of a fall, he's in a skilled nursing center, and there are many things he loves to do that he is not doing. Perhaps Mom would've …
This week began as usual. The country's dumpster fire continued apace. Papers needed grading. Appointments waited. Then Dad fell again. It's his second fall. If you've taken care of an aging parent, you know the problems falls bring. So we headed to the ER. Papers didn't get graded. Appointments got booted down (or off) the …
I don't think my head has actually been in the clouds--metaphorically or otherwise. I've been too grounded in the news. Or sucked into the news like a 1970s tv character into quicksand. Except the news is real. No director is going to yell cut and end the scene. If only... But between the destruction and …
Literal and metaphorical fires are burning everywhere, and I do not have a sufficient water supply. Who does for this conflagration? But what is community for if not to bring those buckets together--those heavy buckets, rusty buckets, buckets with holes, buckets without handles, all the buckets belonging to those with sense and decency to know …
Well, I used to like Neil Gaiman. But I never read Sandman, and the first book of his stories I read, I only partially liked. I particularly enjoyed a story about an old woman who bought the Holy Grail at a thrift shop. A few stories I didn't like at all, and most of the …
One friend is in the hospital. I don't want to say much about it because her situation is ongoing and I don't want to throw her business too far into the internet. And really, there's a lot I don't know about her situation anyway. We message each other almost every single day, and something was …
You know what I don't need? Probably one of the same things you don't need! Another obligation. But not all obligations are equal, obviously. For the last year-and-a-half (with no sign of abating) I've been letting obligations smother and strangle my writing and art. It's not been pretty. Well, for a while, I've been a …
Marta Bacon 