Perhaps

Perhaps she would drop a few ice cubes into her glass of wine, staying for a bit after picking up her grandson, my son, from basketball practice. I’d stop whatever I was doing – prepping dinner, or helping my daughter with homework – and we’d chat for a moment, her Read more

Lisa Witz

Lisa Witz grew up the youngest of nine children on a sprawling cattle and sheep farm north of San Francisco. She left the small town to feed her wanderlust, living in Japan, Spain and the Pacific Northwest. She now lives near San Diego with her husband and three children, and they often visit the farm to hike the trails of her childhood. Visit http://www.lisareginawitz.com for more of her writing.

Dare Devil

I came to you, always wishing for your love approval I rode winds, flying over time just to be by your side wishing for more time love I still crumble knowing that you are gone wishing for how it used to be home   Photo Credit: pom.angers Flickr via Compfight cc Julie Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

Tucking In

We stood on the hillside, the early July sun warm, the notes of Danny Boy on the bagpipes lingered in the blue air.  It was not like other funerals–no lowering the casket on a winch, no Astroturf around a large grave.  Three small holes had been prepared. Daddy had died in January, Read more

Ann Klotz

I am a writer and mother, living in Shaker Heights, OH, where I am the Head of Laurel School, a girls' school. Our house is full of books and tiny rescue dogs. My work has appeared in Literary Mama, Mothers Always Write, the Brevity Blog, Mutha, Mamlode, The Grief Diaries, Manifest Station and elsewhere. My essay about becoming a teacher was recently published in Creative Nonfiction's anthology What I Didn't Know. I blog semi-regularly for the Huffington Post.

GRIEVING

Ghosts of past deaths crowd my consciousness as I face yet another loss, a slipping away of another friend and brother. Each time we face the penumbra of dying, surreal ghosts rise up to remind us of other moments, déjà vu’s, other losses we’ve already endured. Each death rolls into Read more

Susan P. Blevins

Susan P. Blevins was born in England, and escaped at age twenty on her life quest, moving first to Italy for 26 years, and then to the USA, where she now lives. The older she gets, the more passionately involved she becomes in the world, and the more she wants to make a personal contribution. She believes that we can all make a difference, one hug, and one smile at a time.

Today is the Day

Today is the last day of my life. It was inevitable, and I had accepted it. In fact, I had embraced it. I was almost looking forward it. I expected – well – I hoped, that it would provide the release that I wanted. The relief that I needed. But Read more

Michelle Dinnick

I am a contributing author in the most recent Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Spirit of Canada, and a quarter finalist in the ScreenCraft Short Screenplay contest. My writing has won several awards, and appeared in The Globe and Mail and a number of local magazines and newspapers in Alliston, including The Briar Crier, Total Sports, Voice of the Farmer, and Focus 50 Plus. Last summer, my short story “Lightning Strikers” was made into a series in the Focus 50 + Newspaper because fans asked for more! You can find me online at www.commuterlit.com; www.fiftywordstories.com and www.michelledinnick.com.

Not Your Daughter

my father never saw me smoke he didn’t see the way the clouds come out of my mouth and make beautiful shapes in the sultry sky between me and Her. I have never liked the way a cigarette felt between my two fingers but the sight of it between Her Read more

Paakhi Bhatnagar

Paakhi Bhatnagar is a student from India and an avid reader of historical fiction. She is a passionate feminist and blogs about current politics and feminist issues. She also possess the uncanny ability of turning everything into a debate.