I can't remember how much before my mother's death, I thought about death and dying. It's true that my mom had had a boyfriend who was a professor of death and dying. My 13-year-old self was very impressed by this. Just as I was impressed that my mom spent a night in a cemetery with …
A home that caught my eye in Salem. Definitely not the house I grew up in. In grad school, I had a final exam with a one word question. We had to write about this one word. (For the life of me, I can't remember how much time were were given, but it was at …
I love the lake. The lake doesn't love me. Dad bought his house on the lake before I was born. The lake lives in my earliest memories. In childhood, dad would make me volcanoes in the beach sand. We had our best conversations on the dock. As a teen, I sat on the dock to …
The Civil War brought us death on a massive scale, and I've read how people turned to seances. First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln held seances too. The Spiritualist movement was already in place by the time of the war, but certainly so much violent death spurred more people to try so-called spirit circles. (Aaron Mahnke's …
Continue reading There’s a Gaping Hole in the Livingroom Wall
(where I grew up ~ starlight added) It's the most contemplative time of year. (Well, not for everyone. Plenty of people may find other points in time more suited for contemplation. Some people seem to have no ability to contemplate much of anything least of all their place in the world and the hardships of …
Last year, I wrote this to welcome our travel into the New Year. Hardly seems adequate looking back. The Winter Solstice brings us the longest night of the year. It carries us into winter, a time to burrow in and reflect on where we've been, what we've done, and what the future may hold. And …
Welcome to the beauty of the last months of the year, the change of the trees, the chill in the air, the land going fallow (at least in this northern half of the planet). The first frost can worry and terrify those without shelter or those who need the bright warm sun. The falls calls …
October arrives! Welcome witches and all! I'm here for it, in spite of everything. But this post isn't really about Halloween. One of my goals as we in this hemisphere slide into winter is to create more space or rather to clear out more stuff that I do not need. Last year, I tried the …
I've been sitting here for an hour thinking about what to write. I had ideas until I clicked on "Add New Post." Making art and poetry and stories is what I do even if it is not enough. I have added more installments to The Fairy Tale Asylum for those of you reading along. Thank …
The world feels steeped in grief. Death is countable. Grief immeasurable. And while death is part of life, so much of it is unnecessary, senseless, and terrible. We grieve for more than people. We grieve moments. My mother wasn't there to see me graduate. We grieve relationships. My mother never knew her grandson. We grieve …
