Tag Archives: Skin Hunger

Apr 08 2022
Posts

Awakening Desire

“…pleasure is not a ‘nice to have.’ It’s a ‘need to have.”  — from the Netflix series, The Principles of Pleasure.

During spring, my desires awaken. Like the earth defrosting in the warm sun from the extended daylight, I too unthaw and heat up, begin to have cravings and appetites that slumbered during our Midwestern winters. My senses are enhanced. I observe more couples outdoors in the neighborhood, taking romantic walks, holding hands, some with dogs and children in tow. Following is a poem that captures the itchy restlessness of spring fever. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 14 2021
Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Love In a Pandemic

“I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love, because that liberates. Love liberates.” — Maya Angelou

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.”  — Lucille Ball.

Valentine’s Day is here. As it approached, I drafted this musing about the holiday and romantic love, a look at relationships, dating, and my single status while ‘Home Alone.’ Yes, love in a pandemic. As a single person, it’s a look back at the past, skin hunger in the present, and desire for companionship in the future.

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
May 23 2020
1 Comment
Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: What Was, What Will Be

“You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood…back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time…” — Thomas Wolfe

On the Friday before the Memorial Day Holiday weekend, I reminisced about holidays past. Years ago, a group of friends nicknamed, ‘The Orphans,’ would plan an annual camping trip to Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek in Door County, Wisconsin. We dubbed these one of the ‘The Orphan Holidays.’ From a vignette from my memoir in the works, Perfectly Flawed.  Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
May 11 2020
1 Comment
Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Skin Hunger

“Touch is the first language we speak.” — Stephen Gaskin

“Touch has a memory.” — John Keats 

As I continue to chronicle my COVID-19 journey in this seventh in a series of dispatches from the hideout, I’m faced with identifying my fundamental needs as I socially distance. I’m reminded by op-ed pieces that more precisely — we’re physically distancing — that we can still reach out and interact with each other virtually — or at a safe distance of six feet in small groups of people.

Though I’ve started to work at my new job at an LGBTQ+ community center, it remains closed to the public which it serves. A small group of staff, including part-time advocates like myself, provide services and plan for an uncertain future, aka, the new normal. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work and to collaborate with others again, especially since I’ve spent, for the most part, the past almost 10 weeks, physically alone. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,