What if your authentic self is not welcomed? In recent months, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have made headlines for stepping down as senior royals. I don’t read celebrity gossip, and I can’t claim to judge their character. But the act itself struck me as brave. Markle has been under intense media scrutiny, and there’s…
Dripping sand, cement, worn-out painted walls; Cats eat rats, rats eating cockroaches and cockroaches eat everything. Her grandma’s unique cooking, the screeching cry of her brother yelling for his favorite toy. Smoke from the inebriating charcoal, her mom shouting for her to clean up after herself. That is what the 10-year-old Sharon imagines when she…
“Home”… Oh, what a sweet word it is! This one word brings all the emotions, memories and love. After all, home is not just a building made of bricks and cement, but it is where everyone lives together in harmony with each other. It is a place to share, care and love. Here people make…
You stifle a cough, so others won’t starebut can you spare a square? You yell, you scratch, you’re quite a pairbut can you spare a square? Don’t be lured into our lairbut can you spare a square? This moment is heavy, and equally rarebut can you spare a square? They don’t…
A small, square slab decorated with beautiful flowers around it, always grabbed my attention in my early years. It was hung above the entrance door of my home. I always admired the beautiful colors and often asked my grandmother what’s written on it. She used to tell me that it was written “Home Sweet Home”.…
Angels we have heard on high. But rarely do we see them. When we’re low and need the peace to help us muster a smile, it may take an angel or two. Seasons show us the cyclical nature of life. One year ago I was being prepped for surgery to remove a very large tumor…
This morning I woke up in pain. I had a headache, as usual, and pain in my upper back, which has been happening more often lately. Not long later, my gut cramped badly enough that I couldn’t carry on conversation with my husband, who was talking to me about limiting the kids’ time on the…
It’s that time of the year—the holidays are upon us. Sometimes the reality of this season is the hustle and bustle of shuffling in and out of department stores and forcing smiles for pictures, when all we are really looking for is the glorious. As the great Frank Loyd Wright said “Sometimes less is more.”…
Move for me So I can remember what it feels like To be lighter than air and so___ Very sure of limb Move for me In ways my body remembers as if It were today When you hold gravity to task I am fearless once more & Free Resist! These universal laws As ever long…
Beads of mist clung to the two columns of light that guided the car around each twist and turn of the graveled road. Her hands clutched the steering wheel as her eyes darted from side to side, trained from years of trying to spot deer out of her periphery while she cruised down Four-Mile Road…
I feel guilty a lot. It’s my go-to. Guilty if I take too much time for myself. Guilty when I don’t feel like picking up my kids for the zillionth time. Guilty when I’m tired. Guilty that I’m not doing more, more, more. Guilt can be good. It can mean regret and we learn. An…
A percolating coffee pot sounds a lot like a person dying of lung cancer trying to breathe. I made this analogy at age 8, sitting in my aunt Sally’s apartment in Springfield, Missouri, surrounded by depressed relatives. “What’s that bubbling sound? It sounds like Granny Anne.” I was just being honest. She died that night…
When the day has hit me hardWhen disappointment spreads itselfwith wrinkles on my foreheadbaring roots into my heart I search for your face I want to rememberwhat it felt liketo be the bud of your aweTo feel the shining tendernessof your affectionwhile I did nothing special at all SARAH currently lives and works in Edmonds,…
There’s an orange glow From that moment I held your secrets closeAnd now it’s skipping on the edges the of the waterCatching on the little waves and highlighting the shifting moods The grey of the winter evening is filling with charcoal and will grow blackBut for now the rain is breaking the surface of the lakeIt’s…
It’s 3:30 a.m. and I’ve been awake for the last hour. My mind feels restless and a little bored. I’m not anxious, and I don’t remember a dream. At 40 years old, I wonder if I’m waking due to age. But there was no heat or sweating or urgency to visit the toilet. I was…
Kindred 