My bandmate Mike recently texted me a photo of the $50 check from our first brewery gig and delightedly noted it was the first time he'd received a check for playing music. I texted back, It feels amazing to make $ for creative work! Yay! But also, I'm sorry capitalism makes this feel like the... Continue Reading →
Six years ago today, I got home from work, and was sitting across from my then-husband telling him about my day when his cell phone rang. At first, I didn't pay a lot of attention, then he said some things like "holy, shit" and "I love you, man," and hung up. It had been his... Continue Reading →
When I was born, my brother David was already in junior high: a 12-year-old boy with glasses, gap teeth, and a sort-of-shag haircut, except not as cool. It was 1973, and his geekiness belied what a heartbreaker he would soon become — after contacts and braces and athletics (plus a better haircut). He already loved nature... Continue Reading →
When the holidays are approaching and festivities are being planned, for families who have lost a member — which is a lot of us — we often think of the empty seat. Where a beloved person once joined in, a place is now vacant. In my case, it’s specifically the empty daybed at the edge... Continue Reading →
Sometimes it feels like everything that ever happened to me has compounded. As if the addition of all my life's wins and losses doesn't balance out; instead, it is more than its sum. And that this journey is one gigantic emotional roller coaster of highs and low. Grief can loom larger, and more dramatically. There... Continue Reading →
For many years, I had the recurring dream that I had to go back to college — specifically Hampshire College — where I met my future husband and countless, enduring friends. Each iteration of the dream was a little different: I had the same roommate, but we had to find beds in a giant open... Continue Reading →
retreat noun re·treat | \ ri-ˈtrēt \ 1 : an act or process of withdrawing 2: a place of privacy or safety 3: a period of withdrawal for prayer, meditation, study, or instruction For five days, I woke not to the alarm on my phone, but to sun pouring into my room at dawn accompanied by the musical conversation of birds in a gingko tree outside.... Continue Reading →
This arctic chill is getting on my nerves. I want to take a long walk with my dogs more than ever, and we can barely stand 10 minutes outdoors in the sub-zero weather despite all of our bundling, just long enough to take care of “business” if we're lucky. But being trapped inside has cultivated... Continue Reading →
A week ago, I returned from my first AWP Conference, a massive writing and publishing event, which took place this year in Washington, DC. While there, I found out that a triple celestial confluence had occurred: a simultaneous full moon, lunar eclipse and comet appeared in the sky that Friday night, which, despite my reticence... Continue Reading →
As an undergraduate creative writing student, I spent the majority of my disposable time and income at two independent stores in Northampton, Mass: Main Street Records and Broadside Books. I regularly took the Five College bus from Hampshire College into town and jumped off at the stop across the street from both for the sole... Continue Reading →
True Scrawl 