Thoughts on over-apologizing — What is that sorry doing — always falling so easily off my tongue? If my apologies were thread, I could crochet a blanket big enough to cover the world. Sorry grows like a chartreuse weed in my verbal garden — stealthily stealing sunlight and water from more appropriate words —…

Words of encouragement — I forgive you. Can you forgive yourself? Don’t worry about your missteps or mistakes. No one is perfect. Everyone has faults. Failing doesn’t make you a failure. You become a survivor or life’s pupil the moment you try again — the instant you get up. Set a limit to the…

A metaphor for fear & depression — Her prison is small, but to her looks limitless. She has tried to dream dreams and plot escapes to get out, but with disuse her tools have been misplaced, decayed, or rusted out. Each link in the shackles that bind her was forged in fear and hardened with doubt. And…

Two poems of faith and love Ponder the Infinite You are inside, looking outside. You are contained, searching the uncontainable. There are vestiges of darkness, but they do not interrupt the light. Tears have fallen here, but they endured for just a night. You have come upon an intimate solitude. You have heard…

Thoughts on faith in childhood vs. adulthood — When we were children, they told us to dream big and chase the impossible. Then we reached a certain age, and they made us put our dreams and toys away and asked us to be practical. When we were young, we thought the grown-ups were the free ones — they…

A love poem — I want to be your favorite shirt. Not the shirt you wear like a mask to all those starched stiff occasions in life where you feel like a person playing the part of yourself as an adult. I want to be that super soft cotton shirt — the one you…

A poem for farewells — Goodbyes are like sunsets — A spectrum of senses and sentiments. Some are unassuming; We don’t pay them much mind. Without great ceremony, They move us from daylight to nighttime. We don’t photograph them or make many remarks. We simply allow them to casually carry us to the dark. Some…

When death shrouds Mother’s Day — I thought I’d be better at this by now — missing her. Some years it’s not as bad. Other years it feels unbearable. Time has helped, but time also hurts. The loss grows less foreign each year. But each year also carries me further away from her. When my mother…

Three short pieces on grief, depression & joy — Happiness Takes Courage Happiness takes courage. You have to be brave to surrender to joy. When every molecule of your being has been mourning — when loss has permeated and ruptured your heart — you must be dauntless to pursue mirth. You must find great multitudes of grace to forgive yourself for forgetting…