I shuffle around this new space, feeling it both too small and too large at times. Too small because I’d…
Moon Jelly Tide
A few days ago, we walked the beach on a cool, cloudy day. Moon jellies lay splattered about every fifty…
Loose Ends: Dangling
I let the day go by without comment. January 13th—the first anniversary of the day our Big Dog left…
Busyhead: Anxiety as a symptom of grief
My head is full of bees. Thoughts hum constantly and without direction. Grief has been the strangest animal for me.…
Afscheidswals
Excerpt from a work-in-progress on this National Mutt day for my most beautiful mutt. April 2019 I hear, tonight, no…
Love at First Sniff: Introduction to a Special Character
“I met a dog today.” Those were the words I used to describe our first encounter with Big Dog in…
Art & Grief: Finding the Perfection in the Imperfect
I stitched and the dog snored and life was sweet and warm. I finished the biscornu and in all those stitches and waves and snoring came words for the page…
The Joy Between Naps: Facing Mortality
When you walk beside someone daily, you don’t always see the subtle changes in their bodies and faces as they…
Lost Art
These things cloud my head (with my permission) like a perpetual flu. If I were an addict, I could blame drugs or booze, but my addictions are the 3 x 5 screen in my hand and the constant reexamination of pain and rage. Better to binge on pixels and past hurts than to leave the chasm in my brain agape because I simply can’t properly fill it.
Depression and Suicide: Why we can’t say “Why.”
The Void. The Beast. The Black Dog. The Pit. Depression and Suicide are once again prominent in the news cycle.…