It started with a conversation about writing a memoir -- particularly, my memoir (or, perhaps, technically, second memoir) and how I've hit the brakes a little bit. "I don't understand," my husband said. "I feel like, when I was growing up, the only people who did memoirs were presidents and generals, and it was usually… Continue reading Wounds vs Scars & Desperate for Stories
Category: Actually Serious
Dark Night of the Soul
As it so happened, I learned about the dark night of the soul right as I was going through my own. As it always happens. And I can never really say whether it's because we are simply seeking out what we need, or perhaps God/the Universe puts things in our path right as we need them.… Continue reading Dark Night of the Soul
Nevada and Home
I. For a New York minute, there was talk of moving Nevada. It was a long shot, but also a once in a lifetime opportunity. One of those offers that you just don't turn down, that you see where it goes -- no matter how unlikely, no matter how thrilling or frightening. From a little before… Continue reading Nevada and Home
Detox
"Sometimes you just need to detox the body." I've heard this countless times before, as if toxins stake territory and the only way to get them out is by drinking some terrible potion. As if we don't have working respiratory, circulatory, and endocrine systems. The grapefruit juice cleanse. The lemon water and cayenne pepper cleanse. Liquid… Continue reading Detox
Saturn’s Return
I first heard of a Saturn return through No Doubt. When I was 14, they released “Return of Saturn”. In one of the tracks, Gwen Stefani references the album title, singing: The return of Saturn / assessing my life / second guessing But I was an adolescent and -– like a lot of the more… Continue reading Saturn’s Return
The Expressions We Make
"Well, someone is looking chipper." She's sitting on one of the larger rocks off to the side. A fellow hiker, one of the countless people you meet and effortlessly talk to and then equally as effortlessly part ways with while on the trails. I'm probably a quarter mile in to what is about a solid half mile of… Continue reading The Expressions We Make
Wasp
A wasp has made my back porch door its final resting place. As the days and nights get colder and colder, it stays on the glass panel, moving minimally. Far from its nest and, as far as I can tell, waiting to die. It's funny. I viciously hate wasps. I think nothing of spraying neurotoxin… Continue reading Wasp
Force Me Bold
"You really don't want to go any smaller than this," she says as she looks at the tattoo print-out. "Any smaller and you'll lose definition." She says something similar about the second printout: "At this size, some of these closer lines will start blending together in about 5 years' time." "Neither of those are to… Continue reading Force Me Bold
Model Me
It's Day One of a three-day modeling job -- my first paid gig in over a year and a half. I'm working the floor of Harley Davidson's annual trade show, wearing clothes that won't even be in stores for an additional year. No one from the public is allowed in. We had to sign confidentiality… Continue reading Model Me
Through the Radio
I. It's a Tuesday afternoon in the heart of autumn. I'm driving farther and farther north. I just need away. Away from what? That's a bit of a story. And maybe someday I'll tell that story in full. It's a Tuesday afternoon and I've finished teaching for the day. Three yoga classes, and not a… Continue reading Through the Radio
That (Not This) Abby Rose 