Category: Uncategorized
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Finding Joy in the Inches
Part 3: The Peace Treaty September 2012: I found myself a widow at forty years old. When something this unexpected happens—leaving a gaping void in the daily existence you once knew—there is no standard playbook for moving forward. My previous ten years had been a focus on raising three children, completing my education, and establishing…
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Finding Joy in The Inches
Body Dysmorphia is a Bitch The almost daily dispatch is coming to you from my cluttered desk, in my cozy home perched on the edge of the world. The very peek-a-boo view of the vast Pacific Ocean on this beautiful Easter Sunday is glittering on the horizon as the sun starts to set. My belly…
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Swimming in the Gray
A work in progress… Today’s dispatch departs from my usual musings and wanders into a private, protected part of my soul: my creative writing. I started this blog with a few purposes in mind: Today, with shaking hands, I present a first draft of a first chapter. It is raw, and it is unfinished, and…
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Raw Dogging Life
Living one 10 Minute Increment at a time Today’s almost-daily dispatch comes to you from my comfy recliner in my living room, looking out on my seasonal, very peek-a-boo view of the Pacific Ocean. I am balancing my loyal Chromebook on my lap while my Xbox controller lies precariously on the right armrest and my…
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The Goldilocks Express
Ding! The Spark app flashes a new offer. It’s an Express Shop with a delivery address about ten miles away. I quickly scan the shopping list, checking my “Hard No” criteria. My eyes dart down the screen: I glance at my watch. The time needed to complete this shop fits perfectly into my morning strategy.…
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From Burnout to Spark
Today’s Almost Daily Dispatch comes to you from a Walmart parking lot in the Pacific Northwest. A Walmart parking lot, you ask? Behold: your friendly, neighborhood Walmart Spark Delivery Driver. Even a semi-retired, fifty-something, recovering burnout needs to make some scratch. Let’s be real: Momma needs her Botox money. I wanted to return to the…
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Our Amy
What’s something most people don’t understand? From the outside looking in, we get it, we know. We understand that it is hard for you to understand. Our family dynamics are different; they have been since that fateful day in September of 1975. Amy, my younger sister, does not fit societal norms. Born with microcephaly due…
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365 for a 180
The turning of the wheel. Before we dive deep into this dispatch from the very rainy, soggy coast of the PNW, I would like to ground us in a few core concepts. These are the three pillars of my belief system and how I navigate this journey. The Source: I believe in one all-knowing, all-loving,…
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“Quitter”
The sirens on the way to Silverdale were a screaming reminder that the math just wasn’t adding up anymore. For eleven years, I’d been calculating my life in “years to retirement,” like a prisoner marking days on a cell wall. But while my brain was focused on that 20-year “sweet spot,” my body had started…
Joy On A Journey 