I just returned from Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation (VONA) on a red eye from California this morning. From the brisk, sweet breeze of Berkeley, I step into a thick water soaked towel of humidity called Ohio with its oppressive heat index and barely livable summer conditions. I’m trying to hold onto the transformative […]
Author: Lisa
Quiet No More: Remembering Chris Roark, A Free Write on Grief
I’ve been keeping quiet for a while. This blog has been quiet, neglected really, for quite some time. I changed the masthead to remind myself where I currently am, but something about it doesn’t feel right. I’m not “liberal” — I never really took to labels — but I did it to give readers some […]
The Masterpiece View
This is how I feel about my life right now. A piece of artwork in process, perhaps forever in transition. Dramatic, illogical, sloppy even. But real. After two years of inexplicable sacrifice and flexibility, Nick is graduating from his MBA program on Sunday. This day was dreamed about 3 years ago, and it has come […]
Have a Day You Should Forget
it was about ten years ago that i received a certain letter from nick and he used a phrase that i haven’t forgotten after all these years. he wrote, “today was such a beautiful day and yet i know that it’s also a day that i’ll likely never remember.” i remember reading that sentence and […]
Another Ecdysis: Resigning from My (Paid) Job
life flows in seasons, doesn’t it? to think otherwise is setting ourselves up for frustration. life is never still. even if our memory conjures up a time that we remember as more steady, i’m quite certain that if we did go back to that time – or any time, really – we would find life […]
Processing El Salvador: A Free Write on Being Good vs. Doing Good
I just got back from El Salvador. My body is fatigued, my mind is foggy, and my heart seems to be in a coma from all that it was exposed to. I am tired. The only sadness I feel comes from my regret that I didn’t have time to write. Each morning was early – […]
2012 Good Friday Homily: What Your Eyes See
It was five years ago during Easter weekend when my husband Nick and I got off a plane from Boston to visit my family here in Ohio for the holiday. It was my favorite time of year but what I was most looking forward to was spending time with my siblings. I was close with […]
Choosing to Stay Catholic as a Feminist: A Radical or a Hypocrite?
I was recently engaging in an online disagreement turned ugly about my identification as a catholic. In all fairness, it was my fault. I commented when I should have known better. A newspage I had liked on Facebook for its incisive perspective on current events posted a link to an article that reported on priest […]
Troy Davis vs. George Zimmerman This is What Racism Looks Like in Our Judicial System
What Makes You Indestructible Yet Vulnerable?: 330 Word Contest for Women’s Herstory Month
So, I’ve fallen in love with Favianna Rodriguez’s, “Indestructible Women” poster. So much so that when I saw it, I immediately bought not only one but two copies. I have no idea why. There was something about it that spoke to me, something about the three figures of a woman at different stages in her […]