Into the Wilderness: Story 56 My fourth grade teacher scared me. I grew up in Oklahoma in the center of the Bible Belt. Although church and state were supposed to be separate, I had many teachers preach the gospel in public school. I was a Greek Orthodox Christian, a pomp and procedure religious practice veryContinueContinue reading “Get Thee Behind Me”
Category Archives: Into the Wilderness
Lost and Found
Into the Wilderness: Story 55 A close family member and I have not spoken in almost 20 years. His children are adults with careers. He looks as he always did with less hair and a slightly bigger paunch. His wife— forgive me— looks like his mother. She hasn’t aged well, though it could be theContinueContinue reading “Lost and Found”
Bad Girls
I haven’t shared a poem in years. Here’s a new one. Here’s to the bad girls, The ones who rise at midnight, Twitching for a fix Of wind in the valley or snow in the city. They rise and watch for ways to break Crystal and ceramics and stand- Ards forced by birth. These badContinueContinue reading “Bad Girls”
Snow White and the Corporate Economy
An Into the Wilderness blog: Story 54 Surviving Facts blog The nights are already turning crisp in New Jersey. Last night, as I sat on my sister’s back porch watching the waning full moon, I grabbed blankets to wrap tightly around my shoulders and legs. I have just moved to my sister’s house while ourContinueContinue reading “Snow White and the Corporate Economy”
Packing
Into the Wilderness: Story 53 Packing tip: use crates rather than boxes and label each one! No, I’m not talking about packing heat. I’m talking about packing up everything you have gathered over sixty years of life and putting it all in storage for at least a year. We’re moving. Or perhaps I should sayContinueContinue reading “Packing”
A Moment to Love
An Into the Wilderness blog I don’t usually use Walk the Moon to celebrate life milestones. But today, I am. Today, my husband and I have been married for 11 years. Second marriages for both of us, we have forged a bond of love and authenticity that comes only through experiencing- and recovering from- life’sContinueContinue reading “A Moment to Love”
Claiming Space
Into the Wilderness: Story 51 My husband and I have worked hard to forge a relationship based on equality, respect and compassion. My husband is almost 70, so when I say we worked hard, I am referring to working through the embedded unconscious bias men his age have. To be clear, he has always beenContinueContinue reading “Claiming Space”
Butterfly
Into the wilderness: Story 50 Imagine the life of a butterfly. First, the egg clinging to the underside of a leaf, miniscule yet tough. Its chorionic shell hides a waxy center with enough joules to form life. Inside, a yolk both produces its new self and serves itself as food for the larva to consumeContinueContinue reading “Butterfly”
Heavy Memories
Into the Wilderness: Story 49 When you’re obese, you will always have a fat mind. Notice I said “mind.” Even if or after you lose weight, your mind cannot release the heavy tread of damage obesity causes. It’s two fold: society’s continual denigration of fat and one’s layers of fat shame deeply embedded in theContinueContinue reading “Heavy Memories”
Average Joes, Strings Part 3
Into the Wilderness: Story 48 And then there was Joe. I didn’t want to pull this string. I let it dangle until I singed the threads, a definite end. He was smart, kind, gentlemanly, open minded, polite. I don’t remember how I met him, only that he was more enthusiastic about dating me than IContinueContinue reading “Average Joes, Strings Part 3”