Hippity Hoppity
Dear Diary, Easter has meant a lot of things to me throughout the course of my life. When I was young, it was family gatherings and egg hunts with pastel-clad cousins running in every direction. It was ham and scalloped potatoes and enough deviled eggs to leave me with a stomach ache. It was confusion […]
Friendship Forks in the Road
Dear Diary, There is a kind of grief we don’t talk about much in polite society. But it’s one that is deep and painful and long-lasting: The friendship break-up. We all experience them in different ways. I can vividly remember growing away from my childhood friends when I entered high school and started spending more […]
The Day I Arrived
Dear Diary, At a St. Patrick’s Day party this week, my new friend, Fran, who had just read Parting Gifts for the first time, told me my words were among the best she’d ever read. “Like in my top five!” she said. “And I read A LOT!” There really is no better compliment than that. […]
Find the Sunshine Spot
Dear Diary, Sometimes, I find it difficult to get out of my own way. When things get upside down—as they are wont to do—it takes a lot of internal strength and determination to right them, or to accept them, or to navigate through them. Many days, I’d rather just eat Oreos instead. It’s easier to […]
Un
Dear Diary, Unworthiness is a demon I have battled my entire life. According to my many therapists, it probably stems from having an uninterested, uninvolved father. From having too little and wanting too much as a child. But whatever it was that made its roots take hold was something powerful and deep. I have spent […]
Hurricane Lessons, Chapter 24
I remember the moment it happened, the single spark that set my body aflame. My Pilates instructor and friend stood behind me on the reformer and pressed her legs into my back, her hands into my shoulders. The strength of her long, lean limbs drove me into submission. Her long, blonde hair tickled the back […]
Holding Pattern
Mom and Bob would have been married 38 years today. They married when I was 14. When I think about how much has happened between 14 and 51, I am astounded by all that’s contained within 38 years. They loved each other so well, Mom and Bob. I miss them every day. My sweet cousin, […]
The Space Between
When my mother died, I sat at her bedside and held her hand Until I could feel it turning cold. I’m certain I cried, But I don’t remember tears. I just remember the soft vellum of her fingers, The falling temperature of them, The slight part of her lips. “Stay as long as you’d like,” […]
Quicksand and Greeting Cards
As a kid, I was afraid of drowning in quicksand. I mean, I saw it on Gilligan’s Island, The Incredible Hulk, and Land of the Lost. How could I not be afraid? Once you stepped in it, you were pretty much a goner unless you got angry enough to transform into the Hulk, or The […]
Goodbye, Hello
Hey, friends! I wanted to reach out one more time to remind you that this site (www.katrinaannewillis.com) will be retired as of 11/30/2020. Please come visit (and stay awhile!) at www.katrinawrites.com, where you’ll find all my existing content, be able to sign up for my newsletter and be notified of new content, purchase my books, […]