Sunday mornings, before mass, I try to experience God where I can. The attempt to experience God before mass, I realize, helps when I fail to have a spiritual experience at church, which is often. Should the music dry my already thirsty soul, should the homily fall in my expectations to be inspired to run […]
writing
Morning Pages: An Untamed State
Is it possible to be a novice at something you’ve been doing for years? Yoga instruction books explain the normalities of those newbies beginning yoga practices. Understanding the body is essential to yoga practice and in the early stages of yoga, the body unleashes a reliable yet unexpected stream of energy. This may help explain […]
The Writer’s Id, Ego, and Super Ego
Over the weekend I ran into someone I knew from college. Someone who went on to become a physician and married a lawyer and wore really nice clothes with a cool, slick satin tie. As we exchanged expected pleasantries, and that pause came, signaling questions were coming I braced myself: So, Lisa, what do you […]
A Guide on How To Write About Sexual Violence, In Reaction to “Mellie’s Rape” on Last Night’s Episode of Scandal
It was horribly done. Last night’s handling of sexual violence. Scandal writers “explaining” the history of Fitz and Mellie’s marriage, how Mellie came to be how she is now. The writers took us back 15 years ago and gives evidence of how Mellie came to be the kind of First Lady that she is. There […]
Imbalance Should Never Be Normalized: On Mothers, Writing, and Choosing Your Partner Parent
I’ve been thinking a lot about how much time I read and absorb the life advice from other writers. It’s soft addiction. Articles about the challenge of motherhood and writing smell like dessert, and I devour each one as if I’ll find myself in someone else’s once kept now open secrets. Who you choose to […]
The Slippery Slope of Writers Using Social Media: What I Learned from Shutting Down and Going Offline
Social media had sunk its teeth deep into my flesh. I noticed that I was spending more time reading my colleague’s work, reading articles about writing, absorbing top ten lists of famous author practices, shaking my head over the latest news about Pope Francis, and laughing over clever memes and looking over quickly written haikus […]
Writers’ Greed
On so many levels, this explains my intrepid spirit to go, do, be, feel, experience anything and everything. And simultaneously, the sardonic evil emotional twin that accompanies this. I would argue, however, that my writers’ greed has another contradicting face: the voracious need for community.
Writing Poem, Untitled
Being a writer is like guaranteeing the stone will skip clear across the lake -impossible- halving an alligator thick harvest squash with nothing but a plastic butter knife -impossible- Writing is looking up in the cafe when the coffee goers are gone, listening to the tired busboy with no tips rattle the dishes in the […]
Truthout About Kyriarchy: An Open Letter To “Feminist” Writers, Bloggers, and Journalists
In April 2008, I wrote a post on my blog about and introduced the word “kyriarchy.” At the time, I was writing in response to a feminist blogosphere blow-up. The feminist blogosphere in April of 2008 was busy unveiling the torrent history of feminist-identified white women writers and presses co-opting and adopting the work of […]
The Long View
As a child, I knew that I would someday pick up photography as a hobby. I never envisioned myself as a photographer – always a writer – but there was something about the power that a photograph can hold. The way you can view a photo from a time that you don’t remember as a […]