“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” Maya Angelou Basically, I spend my work-a-day lifting heavy boxes and walking around and around a busy warehouse, which means I am getting paid to work out. Sure, lots of organizing too, of paperwork and emails to reply to, things to sort out, things to receive, that sort of thing. One … Continue reading Little Big Girl
It felt strange, to speak up and make my presence known, seemed tantamount to talking to the TV, yet, I forced myself to say “that’s my stop, it’s after the A&W“. To which the copper-haired girl turned her shiny black cat lady sunglasses towards me, and I felt exposed. With her alabaster skin and the stud in her lip and her worn leather jacket. The older … Continue reading Why I’m Keeping My Mouth Shut For Christmas
To be honest, I couldn’t even put a face to the voice, as the guys who got off were both of about the same age, definitely half mine, and both talking on hidden devices, not to each other. So I’m on my way to work, sitting in the second seat from the back, staring out the window at those familiar wintry streets. Now, being very … Continue reading The Listener On The Line
The last couple of months I have wandered about, picking at the fringes, ran my eyes across a multitude of words, nourished my brain with histories of civilizations and empires, in search of ‘it’. I suppose it is hard to find ‘it’ when you have no idea what ‘it’ is. I hesitate to define this sense as depression, if only because I believe that word … Continue reading A Blessed Bench Of Boredom
It was a long time ago, and it is far far away, yet still, I remember that day. It defined me. Its tattooed on my soul, probably. It was the day I found out how cruel the world could be, how alone we all really are, and that we should learn that ultimately we are on our own, usually just when you need someone the … Continue reading The Significance Of Just One
Twenty years ago in the spring, the blooms created such stunning avenues of faded petals that I would imagine Arthur and his Knights riding through like some scene out of Excalibur. At one time, rows upon rows of Apples went off in straight lines, long corridors in the fall were lined with rotting Apples. Even then, the grassy bits between had become long and shaggy, … Continue reading The Teachings Of An Orchard
Across the road a man plays fetch with his dog on The Green, a woman and her friend stand at the corner chatting, a dog on a leash dancing and prancing in anticipation of us. Irish and I veer off to the left, as I pass the two women on my right, nodding a hello I turn on to his street. The second coat of … Continue reading Waiting To Become
So the other morning I’m on my way to work, passing by the elementary school here in The Village, and I am all of a sudden cross-legged on the floor of the library, head buried in this book I discovered. It was, oh, maybe 20 years ago now and this was my second co-op towards becoming a Library Tech. I had been putting the books … Continue reading How I Became A Vagabond Mouse
My eyes open to my darkened room; outside the sky is still charcoal. Generally, the sky is dark when I awake as I am an early riser. I stumble towards the kitchen, oops, back up, who am I kidding, first I have to pee… THEN I shuffle the 6 or so feet to the kitchen and grab my glass French Press coffee pot, hoping for … Continue reading Dang Nammit, There I Go Being Divine Again
When I arrive, I dismount, and enter through the black wrought iron gates, ahead of me I can see the tower, the indomitable walls rise up over the banks of the river. I walk along the pathway that traces the edge of the hill, The Mount on my left, the river down below to my right. As I round the terraced hill the giant Oak … Continue reading The Poppycock Of Patriarchy
Mom would sometimes send me off on little errands, only to have to turn around and go back and ask her what she wanted me to do. I was lost in words, images, details. In contemplating some random thought and stepping from the threshold of the kitchen onto the gaudy brown and gold vinyl running the length of the hall, barely 7 feet from the … Continue reading On Learning How To Catch Creativity
When I was quite young Mom said I got so mad at her for something that I refused to speak to her for 3 days. Never once in that time did I budge. Such a steadfastness and my inability to be persuaded otherwise I imagine gave her a sense of both pride as well as a couple pinches of “dear god why have you burdened … Continue reading How I Got That Pain In Me Arse
I was asleep when the phone rang, when the nurses at the hospital called to say, “its time”. So about 20 minutes from now, as I write these words, 20 minutes and 5 years, it will be. And how time has danced by, with new friends, new home, new me. I received the anniversary notification last month, which marks the day I registered with WordPress, … Continue reading Weeping And Dancing And Grieving And Leaving
by PaulaB 