Tell the Story
Maybe you’re a biological mother or an adoptive mother or a step-mother or a mother to people you work with or for. Maybe you play the role of mother to animals or a business or your parents. Regardless of the way you mother, I hope these words that I shared with my step-daughter will help […]
read moreMy stuff that matters a lot to me fits in a small carry-on. My stuff that matters a little less to me fits in a small car. Electricity and air conditioning are luxurious necessities. Order is calming. Waiting is hard. My sister is brave. Afternoon bourbon is helpful. Ribs can be cooked on Sterno. No […]
read moreSarah Payne is the exhausted writing teacher in Elizabeth Strout’s novel My Name Is Lucy Barton. Strout’s narrator says, “…recording this now I think of something Sarah Payne had said at the writing class in Arizona. ‘You will have only one story,’ she had said. ‘You’ll write your one story many ways. Don’t ever worry […]
read moreOver the past few years, I’ve read fewer books than ever before, and of those books, even less fiction. I’ve said that the internet has melted my brain, wrecked my attention span. Or maybe the problem is my 50-something vision, or my glasses, or the quality of the light by my bed. I listen to […]
read moreBatterers and abusers have an uncanny knack for sizing up others’ vulnerabilities–one of the reasons we stay too long is that they underscore doubts that are already in our own heads. The most powerful ones, those most ready for the abuser’s exploitation, are the ones we worry about with private shame. A little insecurity about […]
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For years I kept secrets in silence. Then, once upon a time, I spoke and wrote them to a handful of people and began to blog anonymously. Today I tell my stories face-to-face, online, and in a memoir coming soon. Telling our stories leads to freedom, empowerment, and growth, for both the teller and the told. Is today your once upon a time, your time to tell your story?
