This Mama’s Dharma

I am currently reading a book entitled Dark Night of the Soul by Thomas Moore, and I am very much appreciating the way he puts despair into a cultural and mythological context.  So unlike the bland psychological approaches that dominate our culture today.  Even I, as a professional critic of the mental health industry and [...]

On Friday I had an acupuncture treatment that had me weeping.  I was shocked by the force of my tears.  Here I was, seated, with needles down my spine, my head resting on the treatment table, and the tears hit me at 80 miles an hour.  They came out in a burst and cleared as quickly as they [...]

I am hungry.
I have never felt this empty, this hollowed out, this vulnerable — not that I can remember.  Perhaps I have always felt protected by the love of a man, or the interest of a man.  The attention in some way, shape, or form.  Even if everything else was going wrong in my life, [...]

I remember this feeling.
I like to refer to it as Grinding Loneliness.
And in my better days, I like to refer to it as Much - Needed Solitude.
Right now I am in a Grinding Loneliness verging on a Much-Needed Solitude kind of mood.
But I’m restless.  I considered signing up for JDate again.  Tell me: Noooooooooooooo, don’t [...]

I’ve been letting this precious blog falter a little, and I miss it. The explanation is that I feel myself caught up in a blur of busyness and of sheer exhaustion, joy and heartbreak, and as a result I have drawn inside myself a bit. I’ve picked up a nasty old habit, and [...]

On the table beside me are two men’s handkerchiefs, a small red Bic lighter, a dark red penknife, and a silver watch.
These are items that fell out of my father’s suitcase this evening, the one that I will be giving away as part of my fall cleansing process. The handkerchief still smells of [...]