Love As a Four-Letter Word

My aunt gave up her daughter for a chance at love. Can’t remember which marriage it was – there were seven in all – but he didn’t want children, so she just asked around if someone would take M, then sixteen. A few relatives tried, but my cousin, the depths of whose rejection is unfathomable, strayed […]

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“Principles To Live By” Indeed!

David Adams Richards likes to drag his readers in out of scenarios, sometimes repeating ideas, until they are hooked into his masterful weave.  He demonstrates that life is made up of incestuous circles, and that not all are as ‘principled’ as they would like to think. Principles To Live By centers around the mystery of […]

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Denial Is a Poor Example

“Your homework for this week is to write about the things your mother taught you,” my psychologist advised at the end of our session. Memories have been resurfacing and along with them rage.  I am incensed that I was never protected from some of the things that happened to me. “Well, she taught me that […]

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Two Requests

Exactly…. Mitch Teemley View original post

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Never Sleep With a Laptop

Went to sleep with my laptop by my side.  Big mistake! Casually pushed it into the spot normally occupied by my husband, but as he is away, it was so easy to do.  Didn’t give it another thought. Never imagined that an object, so inanimate, would nudge me all night, invade my dreams and plea […]

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Mother Never Warned Me

He’d always come early, my sister’s beau, hover over me with what I mistook for childlike interest, invite me to go for a ride in his shiny new sports car – a two-seater with overdrive.  I was barely fifteen. Looked like Bert Reynolds: dark hair, dark eyes, a stylish moustache.  He was Russian and broad-shouldered, […]

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Some Family I Can Live Without

“Mom, why do we never spend time with your family?  You have all these cousins I have never met.  What’s up with that?” I cringe when the topic of my mother’s family comes up, never really quite certain how to explain. “None of them like me,”  is the easy explanation, and in part, it’s true. […]

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Simplicity of Childhood Faith

The tiny crayfish slowly made it’s way over the rocky water bed, climbing in and out of crevices, antennae constantly moving.  Perched on my haunches, trying valiantly not to move and startle the small creature, I watched in fascination.  His translucent body moved with such tenacity over what must surely be a challenging terrain for […]

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Tough Stuff

Minutes after my first husband and I were settling into our honeymoon suite, I got a call from my father advising me that my oldest sister had gone from the wedding reception to emergency. “I think you better come,” he told me solemnly.  So we packed up and headed back. I had known that my […]

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What Memories Linger?

“My dreams have turned violent lately, lots of blood.  What could that mean?” “What does blood represent to you?” “Well passion, life giving, but these dreams have a woman being decapitated, a baby being cut with scissors, and it always occurs in connection to my childhood home.” “Not life giving, then.” “I usually convert the […]

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