Writings (blog)

On Bended Knee

The Keewaydin Park Library Experience

My first experience in a library was one of awe and humility. I stood there – fixed in my footsteps, silently looking around at thousands of books. My eyes wandering over the rigid soldiers in all shapes and sizes, lined up shoulder to shoulder in elegant bindings to guard the many accounts of the past. Both truth and fiction sat patiently, staring back at me. I had discovered a connection to something larger than myself. I was like the sinner on bended knee in gratitude to her creator. At the tender age of eight, I did not fully comprehend what it meant to be caught in such a moment, though I knew I had entered a place of true greatness. Continue reading On Bended Knee

Use Your Words

I have always loved words.

I have blanketed myself underneath of them, for protection, for love, for acceptance. I have kept company with the words in my head, on paper, secret words that were all mine to do with as I wish. Words that made sense to me and explained the painful events around me: that changed over time with new experiences and new understandings. Words that never betrayed me even when I would make unrealistic demands of them, rearrange them, manipulate them, convince them to console me; to be mine. And they did. I learned to create perfect relationships where we agreed on most everything. I did this in order to embrace changes in my life. Continue reading Use Your Words

“Hit it!

1979.
Nine o’clock in the morning and the pavement was already hot on her bare, little legs. She sat on the sidewalk in denim cut-offs and a yellow tube top. Tightening the yellow marble rubber-band do-hicky holding her ponytail in place, she wondered if she was ready for her sister to pull her around on roller skates behind their bicycle. They liked to pretend they were water-skiing. Somewhere they had seen this: people floating in the water behind a boat, just their heads bobbing around until they said the magic words “Hit it!” Then, seconds later they were magically standing on top of the water, scooting around like someone in socks on a hardwood floor. Continue reading “Hit it!