reframing femininity
“I am one month postpartum. My husband and I are so tired, we just pass each other with silent stares of exhaustion. Is this how marriages die?” “My 5-year-old little boy got sick in the middle of the night. We lost him within 24 hours. We are trying to rebuild, but I can’t make it…
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I had a meeting at a familiar hotel last week. We entered the parking lot in the same way, from the same angle that the unmarked minivan I was in had cornered the sex buyers so many years ago. My body flinched as it remembered the look in the buyers’ eyes, the slouched shoulders of…
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For the month of June the women of Red Tent Living will be considering the archetype theme of The Rebel. Join us by reading along, or better yet by hosting a group of women at your own table to share stories provoked by this theme.
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For the past fourteen years, the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been a constant in my life. With two boys coming of age as the 34 movies in this franchise were released, I spent many, if not most, of their birthdays from ages 8 to 18 sitting in a darkened theater watching the…
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2007 was the year I began to write. I wrote to name things I had carried around inside for too long without voice being given to them. I wrote to tell myself my own story. It was also the year my oldest daughter graduated from high school and my youngest daughter turned one. I felt…
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As I walk along the road that meanders beside the waterfront of my hometown, I take in the sights and sounds of an early spring day in the Pacific Northwest: the gradient gray sky, the salty Salish Sea mist, the snow-capped Olympic mountains, the sporadic groupings of daffodils brightly declaring spring. I’ve walked this stretch…
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Twelve-plus years of pain, longing for relief. Some would say that I do not own the pain. Technically, they would be correct. My body does not own the pain; still, it ravages me. My husband grapples with a disease that demands daily attention to pain and loss. Sometimes the volume is turned down, but it…
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I know a hero who does not seek gain, but servanthood. He improves another’s day in profound ways with simple actions. He knows the meaning of sacrifice and the power of humility. This hero knows people are more important than things. He phrases everything in a positive light. He is someone who knows how to…
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I currently live in, arguably, the biggest achiever-mindset environment in the nation: Georgetown University in Washington D.C. As an Enneagram 3, you’d think this climate would be comforting. Finally, people who understand my obsession with the Oxford Comma! You’d think I’d feel encouraged by the energy in the air, the need to succeed, and the…
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(for Judy) I may not be firstborn, nor am I male. Yet I’m a member of your Levitical tribe. Ordained before you, a minister just like my father. And in his image, I speak light into darkness.
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