In Loving Memory of My Aunt Veronica Lynn Parker July 5, 1954 – July 18, 2014

A year ago today, my Aunt Veronica (Ronnie) Lynn Parker passed away from colon cancer after cancer spread to her lungs and her liver. She had just turned 60 on July 5th. My Aunt Veronica’s sister, my Aunt Dana, was in the hospital when my Aunt Veronica passed. Aunt Dana had Stage IV lung cancer; …

Why I Welcome Criticism of My Writing

I’ve repeatedly mentioned in my scribbling here and there that I began writing as a ‘tiny tot.’ It’s what I did in place of speaking because I was repeatedly told, “Children are meant to be seen and not heard.” So, I shut my mouth, and I started writing. My pronunciation was horrendous, but you would …

The Ebb and Flow of Relationships

"We return to each other in waves. This is how water loves." - Nayyirah Waheed When I chose to write this blog post on the ebb and flow of relationships, I did not stop to consider the raw emotion I would experience while writing my way through to completion. The idea came to me as I was reading emails my dad …

Epiphany

I had an epiphany a couple years ago, and yet I did not realize it was an epiphany until two or three days after I had had the epiphany. I was scrolling down my ‘News Feed’ on Facebook, revisiting status updates, and I paused to read my response to a friend's status update. While I …

Protective Façades

Many of us have either read or heard Stephen Fry’s quote, “Who are you when no one’s watching?” Or listened to Blake Shelton’s song, "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking.” We create our blogs, our Facebook pages, our Twitter and Pinterest accounts, etc., to establish ourselves in the social media world, and yet we …

The Truth About Writer’s Block

A few days ago I tweeted, “Writer's block is a time we are present to manage life's demands - becoming stuck therein is altogether something else.” My tweet was calculated, as I’ve heard others, of the writing kind, complain of having writer’s block, or I have repeatedly read how other writer’s had found themselves waring …

Life Begins Anew

During the last several weeks, I have had an insurmountable amount of time to reflect on people, events, things past, and things yet to come, but especially my here and now. I wasn't sure if I was ready, or if I even wanted to return home yesterday; however, when we drove into the garage, unpacked …