I’m back in this alien landscape to visit my son whose 16th birthday is approaching. None of what has happened with us in the last 16 years could have been predicted, none of it fits tidy into a family history, none of it has been easy, and yet, when I sit down to piece together all of the photos from previous birthdays, the notes, the cards, the feelings – there is a through line of…
I am part of multiple groups all centered around addiction, but mostly I’d say these are groups of parents and adults who are living a life where things are not going as planned and none of us were given the skills to navigate an unplanned life. And while addiction may be our theme, it is only a subplot in a multilayered and complex narrative. In one group, most of us could point to our parents…
What if you’ve been wrong about your limits all along? I have a belief that I am unable to plan a vacation. The reason is because when I start to plan solo travel, I become paralyzed with fear – it’s too much money, it’s me navigating an unfamiliar place alone, it’s an investment of time and I may not enjoy it. There are so many reasons for me not to act on my desire that…
Every day, a new headline contains an egregious, outrageous and mind twisting claim that turns the truth inside out. And yet truth will out. One of the 100 WOMEN DBA members sent 100 Men Hall rack cards to Welcome Centers across Mississippi. A few of the centers are closed for renovation, and yesterday, I got a call from one in Natchez saying our rack cards arrived, the address had been incorrect, and she didn’t know…
It’s been a week and it’s only hump day. Last night, I went to my ACA meeting where we get to eviscerate our insides and leave exhausted. Yes and it’s good. We were reading a line that said something like how do you recreate insanity in your relationships and I think that was when the chipping away exposed a nerve. Yes, and I cried. Like just out of nowhere or out of everywhere, I started…
My father was a rageaholic. He was furious about things that seemed unimportant to the rest of us. He would yell, throw things, and get so angry his eyes looked like they had flames dancing in them and his neck and face would turn purple like a bruise. I saw this rage in someone I was seeing whose eyes would flicker with flames when they were angry and who one time pinched me so hard…
Yesterday, despite having had a double booked to-do list all week, I drove to Jackson to the MS Museum of Art to see the Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South exhibit. I’m an avid quilt fan and first became enamored with quilting when I lived in San Francisco and went to the Gap Headquarters where they had a collection of Amish quilts on display. My ex mother-in-law was a quilter, and…
I went on a biblical journey that centered around the Tin Shed. When I bought the 100 Men Hall, there was a work shed on the property, and I applied and received a permit to remodel it into a Musician’s Cottage with the help of grants from the Heritage Area and Coast Electric Round Up. The idea was to encourage musicians to come stay here, to soak up the ancestors’ vibe, and to relax into…
I have led a wonderfully textured life surrounded by artists. In 1989, I moved to San Francisco, and lived on Mason Street in the middle of a three flat building on the streetcar line. I could see the bay on a nonfoggy day and the roof was perfect for watching the fireworks show when the barges rolled out in the water for Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve. It was a wonderful time –…
The beauty of my life is I am surrounded by artists who create excitement out of even the most mundane. My artist friends have encouraged and helped me start my collage project. They have supported my writing. An artist friend, whose design sensibility and dance moves have taken her all over the world, threw a party last night – always lovely – a covey of female artists. Whether through photos, food, writing, painting, fashion, curating,…