athesaurus.com

…breathe deeply and often…

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  • Defensive Secrets

    “You majored in theatre in college, in your twenties and thirties, you were active in community theatre and children’s theatre, you taught theatre, yet you never took your boys to a play or got them involved in theatre when they were little. Why is that?” the news anchor asked me. I had been expecting this Read more

  • Mom’s Roadtrip

    Mom lost her mind and married Roebuck. None of the kids could stand him, but she was entitled to her midlife crisis, same as anyone else. Since his house burned down on their first date, something about gunpowder gun cleaning equipment and an explosion, such a catastrophe, that they moved to Texas soon after they Read more

  • My Cloister

    Smile.  I biked to the cathedral in the spring. I was an overweight 40 year old American woman on a bike tangled in British traffic. The underpass near the roundabout before the cathedral was scary, traffic came from everywhere and all directions. I should not have survived the rides into town.  That’s the cloister walk. Read more

  • Dear Creativity

    Dear Creativity, It’s time we stopped piddling about and started dancing together. Since I was little, you’ve been working against me instead of with me. You and I have been out of time and one ingredient shy of success  since I was born, and you know it. You left me in the dust, or did Read more

  • Running out of Time in Dante’s Spiral

    “Turn in your papers.” “I’m not finished. You didn’t give us enough time,” said Jason. “You had two days to copy ten sentences correctly. That was enough time,” I said. “I wasn’t listening, that’s not fair. I’m calling my  mom,” said Jason. Pressure.  I wasn’t listening either.  I wasn’t listening half of the time when Read more

  • Leonard’s Top 10

    Leonard’s Top 10     My current favorite book is Elmore leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing. It might be my favorite. It has pictures. It is what a book should be. It is complete. It is auditory, visual, and kinesthetic, if you get the hardback, which I did. Twice. This book is special. My first copy Read more

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  • Putting it off…

    Putting it off… Once, I was a fashion plate. I dressed in incredible clothes that I designed and made myself. I’d stay up into the wee hours sewing complicated patterns with facings, buttons, zippers, lots of handwork, and they were amazing. Designer clothes. Beautiful work. When I got pregnant with twins, that shit stopped cold…

  • That Time My Hair

    I never had a problem with my hair, but Mom was always messing with it. She never let me grow it long because “I couldn’t take care of it.” Truth was, she didn’t want to take care of it and said I was too lazy and inept to handle it, qualities I’ve fought off my…

  • Not the Same

    IT’S DIFFERENT written by: Devonne Brown published by SpillWords, January 19, 2023 @athesaurus1 The quiet is different this morning.Its timbre has a breadth, a substanceI hadn’t noticed before.The quiet when the boys slept was full of their dreamsThis emptiness is hard. It supersedes noisefrom the TVthat deafens the background silence.It shatters then evaporates like it…

  • Waning Xmas

    This Week The end of Christmas, the end of the semester, parent conferences, the end of winter break. Parents signed up to be able to tell the teacher how cool their kids were. Endless talk about their kids. They didn’t care about behavior or academics. They wanted to tell us, their teachers, all about their…

  • Holiday Fruit Salad

    Thanksgiving is about fruit salad. Forget the birds and big gourds, even the shellfish and breadcrumbs. It’s all about the fruit.  When Dad was little, his dad would make this incredible fruit salad during the holidays. When you’re from Clay county WV, that fruit salad is a gourmet delight. Grapes, bananas, mandarin oranges, fruit cocktail,…