For my Door County LGBTQ+ writer’s group, Write On, the prompt this month was ‘Thank You.’ At first, it didn’t seem inspiring, until I realized that thank you and gratitude are cut from the same whole cloth. As a person in recovery from substances and behaviors that no longer serve me, gratitude is an acknowledgement of the commitment and work that was required of me, and a thank you for the support I received from others, including a belief in a power greater than myself. Continue reading
Trigger Warning: This essay contains firsthand memories of sexual molestation and harassment.
From my memoir, Perfectly Flawed:
“It was during one of those occasions I lay napping on the guest bed at my maternal grandmother’s house, on the chenille bedspread under the picture of the geese taking flight from the marsh, Charlie came into the bedroom to wake me. As I struggled to gain consciousness and understand what was happening, I could feel Charlie’s beard stubble scrape my cheeks like sandpaper. His beer and cigar-soaked breath was at my ear, breathing heavily. Continue reading