Some years teach, some years leave you with more questions than answers. (Zora Neale Hurston said this much better: “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”)
How to surf (or at least, how to begin to surf…I stood up, which is what counts).
From Melody Beattie’s Journey to the Heart, shared from a friend during a trip to Costa Rica: “Take your place in the world. Know you are part of a complete universe, but remember you are a complete universe, too.”
My Nonna was right: one day you’ll stop plucking your eyebrows and you’ll see there’s beauty in being bold, dark, and thick.
From ire’ne lara silva, during the reading and launch of her book of poems, Blood Sugar Canto: “I really don’t believe you can heal if fear is the constant emotion that you have.”
When words fail, do.
What a mess we are. What a glorious, complicated mess.
My dogs are more resilient than I’ll ever be.
Why I write: “And maybe we will seed the earth with our understanding.” — Puro Border, Dispatches, Snapshots and Grafitti from La Frontera, by Bobby Byrd & Luis Humberto Crosthwaite
How to drive a quad (much forearm strength needed).
The best experience I had this year was thanks to postcard on a random bulletin board. (Read, read everything.)
I’ve spent too much time and energy trying to avoid admitting to myself that I am feeling drained and hurt and hopeless.
That is not my only reality, though (I say reassuringly, to myself and to you).
We fear conflict, but conflict fears our voices.
There’s beauty in vulnerability; it’s honest and means we’re learning.
One day, I will stop mourning that happy, carefree part of me that died a little in 2016 and embrace the fearless, purposeful spirit that came knocking in its place.
Note: any posts published before Dec. 2017 were previously lost and then recovered when I switched web hosts. Though the posts were recovered, the comments were not.