A tree, missing bark broken branches falling off wounds starting decay. A person, alone 7 5 5 7 5

Wind blows the chimney over, rain leaks through the old roof, staining the ceiling or mold grows on the bedroom wall. It’s worth spending the necessary hours or days to figure out what caused that damage and to fix it.…

Do you think the woman with the dog scanned my wallet? Wait? What? It’s not a coincidence that as soon as I left Starbucks I got that scam call. Your wallet doesn’t have your maiden name on any of your…

Twilight falls, yet before the next dawning, As a decent night’s sleep they do mock, Writers pause, knowing soon they must welcome the moon, And that ancient fiend called Writers’ Block. They hear in the wide world around them Peaceful…

I want to start clean. The weight of financial problems, health problems, and life problems feels daunting. I want to write and need to write but can't get motivated enough to share feelings. This weekend was Tiffany's birthday and it…

When you grow up with a father who cheats on his wife and leaves his family for another woman there's collateral damage. The daughter knew from the time that she was very young that something wasn't right in her family…

Marla swirled in front of the boutique's mirror with her best friend standing to the side. "It's perfect," Jenn said. "You will be the envy of the ball." Marla laughed. "What...I'm Cinderella and I'm about to accidentally meet my prince?"…

It doesn’t show, the damage. I am without evidence and plan to sustain the screen of well-being. I think, basically, I’m succeeding. What am I hiding? The deaths. I talk about them sometimes, when the person I’m with is already…

They say you should not read the comments online. Why would you do that to yourself? It's that feeling of being courageous enough to go in the water, even though you are a bit anxious. To try to ride the…

When my little dog Oliver got older, he would sometimes walk into a room and stop, looking around as if he was asking himself, "what did I come in here for?" He was a Cairn Terrier, wheaten colored, with a…

Whenever Nora found herself sloped against Derek’s body, sleepy and sated, she’d try to puzzle out her intentions in these intimate interactions. “It’s so easy to forget what I came for,” she’d think. “Well, except for the obvious thing–I came…

In 2023, my husband and I moved out of our house for 3+ months because we live in a flood zone and, with climate change, the San Francisco Bay levels are rising. During times when king tides coincided with super…