compassion – thebraverypen

How do you solve a problem like an over-inflated sense of justice?

April 17, 2018April 18, 2018No Comments

A therapist once told me that I have an over-inflated sense of justice. It lingers as one of the more jarring lessons in stripped-down candor that have slapped me into self-reflection. I was aghast and filled with that particular sort of indignation that runs on embarrassment and shame. It felt wrong, but I was young, … Continue reading How do you solve a problem like an over-inflated sense of justice?

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

April 4, 2018April 5, 2018No Comments

Write to live (or, how not to die)

March 13, 2018April 12, 2018No Comments

I used to watch my writing languish. Literally. Like some lazy do-no-good or a comatose soap opera actor waiting for a brain transplant. My ex, would offer to read something I’d poured myself into, hours of pen and paper, computer screen, and back to pen and paper, the cycle of writing and revising spinning until … Continue reading Write to live (or, how not to die)

A place to put it all

February 20, 2018February 20, 2018No Comments

I walked to the pond every day as my life ripped asunder beneath the sharp edges of the summer sun. I didn’t think I could lose any more, but that’s the pitfall of thinking. We fail to realize that much of it is dreaming or hoping or both and that only hindsight reveals the truth. … Continue reading A place to put it all

I will tell you not what you want to hear but what I know to be true because I have lived it.

– Arthur W. Frank, The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness & Ethics

February 16, 2018February 20, 2018No Comments

The good story refuses denial . . .

Arthur W. Frank, The Wounded Storyteller

February 13, 2018February 20, 2018No Comments

Women of legacy

February 10, 2018No Comments

“Have you thought about your legacy?” She asked. I felt hot under the glow of her radiating anticipation. It was Sunday afternoon, and I considered it a feat that I’d managed to leave my house, much less ruminate on the inner workings of what I intended to leave behind for future generations of humanity. “Not … Continue reading Women of legacy

You should write a book about that

February 10, 2018No Comments

When I was voted most likely to become an author (at age 10), I had a pretty clear picture in my mind of what that fabulous becoming would look like. Or, at least I could clearly picture myself on the back cover of a book, my book, I could see it in the library, a … Continue reading You should write a book about that