The Most Tender Bruise

Last week, I banged the back of my hand against an aggressive meter jutting out of a brick wall. My fingers tingled, and a bruise immediately began to spread. (It seems I can’t sneeze without bruising these days). It was sore to the touch, and I whined about it for a good 24 hours. Today, […]

The Great Reset

Hands

It’s ironic, I think, that I was bragging about the robustness of my blood as the nurse inserted the IV. “I’ve got great veins,” I said. “And I’m a universal donor. Nurses love me.”  But my blood didn’t really love me. Not at that moment. I’d been sent to the ER after multiple blood pressure […]

Clarity in the Silence

Ruby

In her “Misfit’s Manifesto,” the brilliant Lidia Yuknavitch states, “I am not the story you made of me.” Narratives are interesting. A different lens, an alternative look, and the story goes in a totally different direction. New eyes, an added perspective, another firsthand account. No story line is ever set in stone. When I was […]

It Is Not a Lie

Rainbow

I was recently reduced to this by one I thought once loved me: You are nothing but a user, a taker, a fraud. You have lived a lie your entire life. When a family redefines itself, many ugly words are spoken… from all angles. There is pain and grief and loss, and the jagged edges […]

In the Quiet Spaces

Ninth Avenue in NYC

some people when they hear your story. contract. others upon hearing your story, expand. and this is how you know  ~ Nayyirah Waheed It’s been over seven months since I came out. Long enough to cry a few tears. Long enough to laugh with inhibition. Long enough to learn a lesson or two. Long enough […]

My No-Trump Vote

The Ending by Brene Brown

There is no room in our White House for a misogynistic bully who degrades and shames and destroys women and who, by example, makes it acceptable for others to do the same.

The Memoir

Tomales Bay

“Writing this memoir has been a journey into myself, into the deepest depths, into the abyss. At times, it’s felt as if I’m peeling skin from muscle, the pain is so intense. But I know on the other side, I will reassemble into a new and different form. A reawakening from an unraveling.”

46

Katrina Anne Willis Sitting in a Chair

I’m sliding gently into 46 today with coffee and contemplation. My birthday is a time in which I find myself reflective, introspective, even a bit melancholy. Don’t get me wrong… aging doesn’t concern me. I’m learning to love myself and my life a little more every day. It’s the wisdom and perspective that comes with […]

Face to the Sun

Lucy in the Sunlight

I let go today. It had become a toxic relationship, this one, serving neither of us. So after twenty-four grueling hours of angry words and misunderstandings and unfounded accusations, I kissed it goodbye, wished it well, and released it. After I deleted all the text messages, stopped reading the empty promises, the declarations of forever… […]