I’m a stained glass artist. When people ask what I do, I sometimes joke that I "play with broken glass." It’s a flip-sounding line for a deeply intentional art form. The truth is, when I break a sheet of glass, I do so with immense care. My cutter, slick with special oil, scores a precise…
On Usefulness and Belonging
There is an expensive lesson that life offers, and I wish I’d had the currency to afford it sooner. It’s this: it is a profound waste of your finite time, energy, and spirit to court the approval of people who only value your utility. For most of my life, I have existed on the periphery.…
And the Preacher Said, “Amen.”
Every year, come late May, I get this… twitch. It’s an undeniable, deep-seated urge to purge. Suddenly, my closets look like they’re staging an intervention, the basement is giving me side-eye, and I’m eyeing that dusty box of “sentimental” (read: questionable) belongings with the cold calculation of a seasoned decluttering ninja. For years, I just…
The Incredible Un-Forever
Why "the end" isn't a dirty word...
And Hope Rose Like the Dawn….
CONTENT WARNING: RAPE, ABORTION I’m lying on a bed at a small, dingy clinic on the outskirts of town. I can’t open my eyes. I'm screaming in my head, but I don't make a sound. My hands are clenched around my forehead, squeezing until I’m white-knuckled and my head is pounding. I do not want…
Raise a Glass to Freedom
I open my eyes The room is still dark. My toes are cold. Actually, all of me is cold. I pile on another blanket and keep shivering. This is a cold that can’t be fixed with blankets. It’s fear-cold. I can’t go back to sleep. Today’s the day I lose everything. 3:30 AM, Saturday, March…
Clearing the Slate?
They say that your skin – your epidermis – completely regenerates itself every 27 or so days, so technically, I'm a different person than I was a month ago at this time. I’ve always found that little tidbit fascinating, and frankly, kinda gross and creepy, in a weirdly cool way. But under my new-every-27 or…
Moving To Maine
This piece was written for a Story Slam I'll be participating in this evening. If you can join us at Create-a-Palooza on High St. in Carlisle at 7 PM, you'll get to see me perform this live, along with other people sharing their stories about "bosses". I was 20 years old the first time I…
Remembering
I’m sitting here remembering something. It smells like 2006 in my office. New Jersey. Someone is wearing LoveSpell. That’s it. That’s what smells like 2006 New Jersey. I’m remembering… Remembering….. It’s amazing to me. One minute, I’m sitting at my desk, writing an email, and the next minute, I’m back in my basement office in…
I Believe…
Belief is a funny thing. We cling to it. Put our faith in it. Use it to define our day to day – to make sense of our world. What we believe is so intrinsically linked to who we ARE that there’s often no separating the two. Belief defines us. It governs how we see…
VoyagersHeart 