from where I’m sitting: A Poem

For Writer’s Digest Poem A Day, day two, I wrote in Bluesky in a couple of minutes: from where I’m sittingA glassScratched and etched from useA strawMetal, bent, and stainedA drinkCold, dark, liquid fuelA brewTo wake me up and greetThe storm. #PoemADay #Poem

The Worst of Times: A Poem

Robert Lee Brewer of Writer’s Digest has run a poem a day event during the month of April. I participated in it — and posted my poems here — eons ago. One poem so captivated my Pastor, he asked Old Testament scholars to comment on the thoughts behind it. Being scholars and me being not,…

The Day the Rice Blew Up

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail. My most epic cooking fail happened decades ago. I’d volunteered to cook for the dinner party my parents were hosting for 20 people. I was 14 years old and already used to cooking for 6 or 8 or more people. Twenty was a new goal! I…

Circling Story

Story. Stories. Storytelling. Beats the heart of the novel. I’d never thought of how it’s the story not the writing that makes a novel a novel until I began reading on Thursday night Story Genius by Lisa Cron when I was two-thirds of the way through Madeleine L’Engle’s memoir A Circle of Quiet. A week…

A Question of Being: First Thoughts on A Circle of Quiet

Brain injury throws the question of “Who am I?” into chaos. According to Madeleine L’Engle in her memoir A Circle of Quiet, the self is becoming. Not static but ever changing. Brain injury both reverses and accelerates this process and asks of us a question of being.

Psychology Today Post for January: Anniversary View of Fictional Brain Injury

Personal Perspective: Recovery is more than restoring neurons. Pre-existing insults to the brain and social support matter too. Intelligence Alone Doesn’t Mean You’ll Question Out-of-Date Knowledge A doctor once told me I’m doing better than 90 percent of those with brain injury. Even so, after 24 years, I’ve still not fully recovered. Sarah [in the…

My 24th Car Crash-Brain Injury Anniversary

I cannot comprehend that I have lived longer as an adult with brain injury than I did without one. My new life with catastrophic brain injury began on this day almost a quarter century ago.