gratitude

You would think, with the number of surgeries and painful medical procedures I’ve undergone in the last few years, that I would be somewhat inured to physical discomfort. [...]

I’ve always been afraid of swirling wind. It’s not a reasonable fear, like you might have if you live in tornado country, or in my case growing up, a hurricane belt. I [...]

I lay in the makeshift recovery room, watching the dust motes dancing in the afternoon sun as the light came slanting in sideways through the blinds. The one window faced [...]

I smelled the fire before I knew what it was. I couldn’t see it or feel it, but the air smelled wrong. An acrid, smoky scent hung in the air as I went about my day, tending [...]

My daughter sits, sweaty-faced and tear-streaked, allowing me to stroke her hair as she breathes in one-two-three and out four-five-six. The stress-induced panic attack has [...]

Somehow, I’d ended up in office supply store. Like a migratory bird, I head to the nearest Office Max when shit gets overwhelming. There, I wander the aisles of dry erase [...]

“Listen to me,” the woman said. She laid her hand briefly on my arm, like a lighting butterfly – just long enough so that I would look up. Her eyes were kind and [...]