Tell the Story
Here’s how Abigail Thomas thinks about writing prompts: “[O]nce in a while, if we’re lucky, an assignment helps you find the side door into a story you’ve been staring too directly in the eye.” For the past four weeks, I’ve been teaching a writing workshop at the Community Center in my neighborhood, and as part […]
read moreAs a child in late 1960s Hollywood, Florida, I often rode past the winter campus of the Riverside Military Academy. Somehow I came to believe that Riverside was where all little boys were sent to be taught the boy-secret of how not to cry. Even though I wasn’t privy to this secret, and knew that […]
read moreIn Composed: A Memoir, Rosanne Cash writes, “If Magritte had painted my childhood, it would be a chaos of floating snakes, white oxfords, dead Chihuahuas, and pink hair rollers. ” Here is what my Magritte childhood looks like: If Magritte had painted my childhood, the sky would be Florida blue and Carolina gray. I would […]
read moreDear January, Every time I thought I knew where we were going, you changed your story, took a hard turn in the opposite direction, put a piano on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay. You have worn me out. But now that we’ve come to our last day together, I realize that our tempestuous relationship has […]
read moreYesterday I went to my first (but not my last) 5Rhythms workshop with Amber Ryan. I mentioned my nervousness to Amber before we started. She smiled and said, “You’ve done the hardest part already.” Of course she was right. I had already climbed over fears and rationalizations and busy-ness to get myself there. I had […]
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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?
