TRIGGER WARNING: childhood trauma, father, abuse, molestation When I was in an undergrad lit class, we were assigned poems to read and this was one. I had to dig it up online today and found it with keywords “father – dance – such waltzing was not easy” My Papa’s Waltz (Theodore Roethke) The whiskey on … Continue reading
I wrote this over a year ago. A few months later, I’d pull the plug (albeit temporarily) on this blog. I’d disable my wawbat facebook. I spent little time on fet at all between then and now, and when I came back to this blog today… I found this and marveled at the emotions which have … Continue reading
This is how it felt. My ability to navigate the world (the “real” one outside my front door) safely while enjoying and exploring who I really am? That was stifled. The judgment is bad enough. We’ve all been judged. We know what it is to be measured against society’s standards and to be found “wanting” … Continue reading
Nearly two years ago, I posted about a sangha dharma talk. The take-home for me was simply this: I am potential incarnate I’ve thought about it many times in the days since. I’ve shared that sentiment with others, especially the young adults with whom I rub elbows. YOU ARE potential INCARNATE. It crosses my mind … Continue reading
I grew up to the music of Karen Carpenter, Nat King Cole, and Johnny Mathis. Sprinkled in around them? Ridiculous Spike Jones and sad Jim Reeves. Lots of classical music served as the backdrop as I read from the shelves of my father’s study. At grandma’s there was Lawrence Welk and on the rare occasions … Continue reading
When she was somewhere around 4 and proudly learning that red and yellow make orange and green is the product of yellow and blue, my spawn had a verbal beat-down with a classmate over the color of her skin. On the way home, she told me she was gray and asked for confirmation. I laughed … Continue reading
Last night, I stumbled… metaphorically speaking… upon a decades-old crack in my pavement. It seemed like the tiniest split in the earth’s surface at first but it widened and its chasm felt too deep… too dark… she asked if I was okay and all I could say was, “I will be.” And I was, after … Continue reading
