Poetry, motherhood and beyond.
My gaze travelled downward, making out the letters ‘was here’. Someone had carved his or her name underneath my thumb but wear and tear had slowly erased it. I stared at it for a while before finding my keys and picking out the one with the sharpest edge. Suddenly, all I wanted to do was carve.
For a long time, I was of the traveling tribe, longing to experience life in vastly different corners of our world. As soon as I was old enough to escape my childhood town and fend for myself, I tried life on for size in San Francisco, Chamonix, Auckland, London, Hong Kong....settling down close to home... Continue Reading →
"One day, I will cease to be and you will go on." We love our children so they can keep living long after we have swiveled out of this world. But life can throw our expected timeline for a loop. My grandmother, shown with her second son in this photo, was the mother and soul... Continue Reading →
During the night's darkest hours, fear can find me. Fear that I will keep falling until I hit something sharp and crack my skull open. The pulsating wound that ensues lets everything seep out into the open, covers my last spider web thin connection to sanity with heavy blood until it snaps and cuts me... Continue Reading →
To love a child is to know love in its truest form, for it expects nothing in return. To love a child is to glimpse the truth that is intricately woven into the fabric of the universe, to get a peek of what it really means to exist, to bring into focus all that we... Continue Reading →
"Women and children only, please. Stand back and let the women and children through!" Titanic, 15 April, 1912. The iceberg has ripped through the most gigantic passenger ship in history, whipping up the human cargo into a panic-stricken frenzy. There aren't enough life boats to go around. As the grim reality is slowly sinking in,... Continue Reading →
She wasn't a pretty woman. Rough, uncared for skin, thinning reddish hair, calloused hands. Here was a woman hardened by life, I thought. Here was a woman you wouldn't want to be. Her demeanor was direct and unimpressed. As we toiled side by side, tackling yet another semi-identical room, shaking out one freshly laundered duvet... Continue Reading →
During my own mind's most confused hours, long gone Tolstoy spoke to me from beyond his grave. I am his spirit forever grateful for sharing his own struggle and awakening in A Confession. I know the publication of the same resulted in his exclusion from the circles in which he moved, but having experienced the... Continue Reading →
When I am able-bodied and strong, it is easy to create the illusion that I and those I love could exist in a vacuum. Nothing could be further from the truth. As humans, we are little jigsaw pieces of a hugely complex society, each performing a task so that the next person won't have to.... Continue Reading →
I once had a friend, but she is no more. Her presence left imprints in me and bettered my life at the time. As a child, she could organise her stuffed animals into elaborate social structures and families and play with me for hours. As a teenager, she explored black mascara and lipstick with me... Continue Reading →
On Mama's Mind 