Category: personal essay
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Bernadette’s Story, Part 1: Meeting The Mongrel
The staff at the animal shelter looked at me like I was crazy when I told them I wanted to adopt Bernadette. I had been volunteering there for a few months and had become fond of this “high-risk” dog, despite all her growling and snarling. However, I feared, due to her behavior and long stay,…
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Only Human
Here is a definition of Only: “On-ly: and no one or nothing more besides.” If we follow this definition of “only” to its logical conclusion, “only human” could be an oxymoron, kind of like Progressive Conservative or Artificial Intelligence. But then it is easy to play with the meaning of words, much like a potter…
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The Cost of Your Peace
I am a recovering People Pleaser. Today, at 45, I still wish there was a support group I could attend no less than once a week to walk along with me in this recovery. While it’s true that I am not technically harming anyone, I have, in fact, continuously harmed myself at the cost of…
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My Love Is Like A ….
My love is like a rose? How about a warm, burning fire? My heart is a slow-burning log, and it gets me into no end of trouble…… She’s 5 foot 2, eyes of blue, and I’m off to the rodeo…. The best metaphors are where you, dear reader, are left to figure out what is…
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Duct Tape, Nails, And Other Precarious Surfaces
On Knowing I Can Always Find Myself On The Dance Floor Have you ever tried to tap dance on the top of a crate that once transported a painting? Let me be more specific. Have you ever tried to tap dance on a wobbling piece of wood with nails lining the edges? I have. No,…
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It’s Never Too Late To Be An Up-And-Coming Author!
After a 50+ year career as a counterculture, rock, and movie set photographer, I reinvented myself as a novelist and released “Lenswoman in Love”– a novel of the 1960s & ‘70s in 2025 at age 78 – a reimagining my early career as a romance. And to my surprise, I discovered that I am not…
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Tranquility
Tranquility is one of the things we can’t buy, yet each of us searches for it in our own unique way. Some of us find it on the yoga mat, others find it in playing music, and some find it in walking in the rain, as each drop gently lands on the nape of your…
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Life Used To Be Fun
This is for my pillars, my builders, and the people who need it. “Life used to be fun”. It’s something I always heard when talking about childhood memories or when people left a message on some random 2000s nostalgia video. “Life used to be fun”. It is a powerful phrase to say and so bold.…
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Lost
Sometimes I really do question my place in the world. And I don’t just mean the whole “What am I doing with my life?” which is a statement that I have come to accept as being an integral part of my inner monologue, provided by the ‘terrible twenties’ period of my life. I am starting…
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If You Want To Be A Writer, Write!
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who loved to read. The real world was sometimes a scary place and reading took her to an imaginary world full of fun and adventures. She would curl up with a good book whenever she could and was often found in bed, under the covers with…