athesaurus.com

…breathe deeply and often…

  • Carolina on Their Minds

    Mary rolled the joint with a dollar bill and impressed the four others in the room as usual. Every Tuesday for the last two years the “Women of Presence” as they had labeled themselves, met in Lynn’s basement room and got high after work. Mary passed the joint to Sallie, who lit it herself. “I Read more

  • Healing Presence

    My seven a.m. writing group has been a healing presence for me. I’ve expressed more of myself to that group of people in fact and fiction than I ever have to any relative, friend, or therapist. Because of them, I’ve grown as a writer and a human. The journey continues to be full. I learn Read more

  • Three or Four Cabinets

    The ladies of the family have a disease. We are besotted with the collecting of pretty vintage dishes. Cheap dime store ceramics, thrift store cut crystal, hand me down depression glass and more fill not one but three china cabinets in my little old lady school teacher’s home. Actually, there are four if you count Read more

  • Virgie’s Soup

    My grandmother, Virgie made soup from whatever she had in the pantry, canned tomatoes, corn, green beans, potatoes, and carrots.  She cooked it down then thickened it up. It was sour with a hint of all the vegetables working in tandem. Soup days at Virgies’s were reserved for project days. We could work straight through, Read more

  • Quiescence n. Calm, serene atmosphere 

    “My mind is like somebody emptied the silverware drawer on a trampoline and the boys are jumping on it,” Ruth told Janice while she scrubbed the bathroom floor. Janice was in the bathtub cleaning the walls and around the window. So much mildew, it flourished in the hot soapy steam of the shower. “I don’t Read more

  • The Ugly Step Sister

    Ella’s job was to clean the ashes, cook, and sew. Mine was to embroidery and be on the lookout for a husband. I wasn’t supposed to go near the hens and chickens, but I was supposed to sit a horse and ride with the wind in my hair. I couldn’t even climb upon the beast. Read more


  • Message

    I’ve been to two funerals this week. Two uncles, one from my dad, one from my mom. Dad’s brother had  a military funeral, Mom’s brother had a Masonic funeral. The military funeral had a twenty-one gun salute at the end of it. The Masons chanted and made hand signals. Both were dignified and sent the…

  • A path through the woods

    There were  hundreds of acres to explore and I suppose we stepped through all of them. We walked through the woods for miles, following each other. The path was the one we created, or sometimes the deer or both. They are creatures of habits, the same as we. We had no place in mind to…

  • First Memories

    I have two distinct memories before I could walk. The first one was being held in my uncle’s arms and reaching for my mother. I loved my uncle Paul as much as any six or seven month old can love another human being who’s around all the time. But I remember throwing my body towards…

  • Winter is…is not

    Cold…killing cold.

  • The Last of the Three Wishes

    The genie granted me three wishes and of course the first two came true in a blaze of glory. He told me to be wise with my wishes and I felt that I was, foolishment was meant for sissies, I wanted all my wishes to mean something. To be granted wishes was nothing to sneeze…