I wonder if they have fireflies in Ireland. Supper’s long finished, and I’ve slipped out to the screen porch to catch a glimpse of the display. From the kitchen sink Bob bemoans that the Kyrgyz exchange students who flew back home two days’ prior missed the show. Erin Lavigne is missing it, too. Erin’s […]
Doing well. (?).
“Shannon, please, I would like to have a conversation with you.” Nazgul calls to me from farther back on the path, then hastens to catch up, her slip-on shoes sliding on the slick trail. The airlines have lost her luggage, and this is the 10th day she has had to make do with insufficient clothing […]
This Marriage
It’s 3am when his hand finds mine beneath the covers. He winds his fingers around mine, then pulls me close, wrapping his arms fully around me. We stay there a long time before he whimpers, “you had an affair.” I launch from the bed with a mighty “HA! You had it coming!!! You SSSSOOOOOOO had […]
Hope or Despair?
“There’s sex,” I chime cheerfully from the passenger seat. Bob’s icy stare barely cracks. We’re winding up the dirt road, headed home for lunch with the girls. “And chocolate!” He doesn’t respond. “And coffee! And we still have Barbers’ vodka…..just down the road!!!! And there’s all those puppy noses. Really. How can the world be […]
For All Souls
Bob and I have had a special tradition since 1999. In 2013 I wrote about it. This coming week, we’ll be celebrating again. I hope you all find similar freedom and joy in your hearts this week. Every November first, I wake up early. I do not check for messages, or sit down to write. I […]
Lucky Dog
It’s nearly 11 o’clock at night. Bob and I pay for our food, push aside our plates and make our way to the exit of Gene’s, a brightly lit restaurant on the outskirts of Moncton, New Brunswick. We are the only customers there at present. A man watches us intently from behind the counter. I […]
Women’s Work
I’m not used to being invisible. It’s true that I’m happy to go for days on end seeing no people. It’s true that social contact takes a lot of energy for me to muster. But it’s also true that, when I am seated in a room with people, I expect to be seen and acknowledged. […]
Divine Intervention with a Shot of Espresso
When Don and Trish sold us the PO building and former firehouse, they left behind an Old Town canoe, a curio cupboard, an electric coffee pot from one of the former post misstresses, a five legged table, and Mark*. Mark is a young homeschooled man from a Mennonite family. He has a gift for working […]
Selling it.
Become a Patron “You don’t show enough cleavage,” I was told by some cynical veteran writers one night after a bottle of wine. “You’ll never make it as a popular writer.” “You don’t do lunch,” I was told by a New York publishing insider. “You’ll never make it.” Long before I faced the brutal realities […]
Selfish
Selfish Bitch. To my mind, those are about the cruelest words that can be uttered to a woman. It isn’t that I haven’t encountered (or employed) more extreme vulgarities. But the venom in that accusation contains the most poison. It tells a woman who has stood up for herself or seen to her own needs […]
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