Last Quik-Trip Going North

“It’s just over this hill.”

“You said that four hills ago. I quit.”

The group came to a halt as Marta sank to the ground. A field of long grasses undulated behind her. Roland, the self-appointed leader since Angelique and Frankie took off on their own, hunkered down next to her.

“C’mon, Marta. Get up. It’s just a little bit farther.”

Marta shook her head with a certainty reserved for six-year-olds whose limits have been reached. She folded her arms tightly across her narrow chest and furrowed her eyebrows at him.

“No.”

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Boiling Frogs, Runaway Trains, and other metaphors for depression

The main symptoms of my depressive episodes show up early. They show up in small, subtle ways, though, building gradually until I suddenly find myself, like the frog sitting in the pot of boiling water, wondering how I got there.

Progress

I have to walk away from making breakfast. I leave the burner on, the egg in the pan, and I leave the kitchen.

I am suddenly very aware of all the commitments, large and small, I have made to myself, to family, to friends for the next month … and how deeply afraid I am of disappointing anyone. My body tingles with the now-familiar electricity of anxiety as I walk up the stairs.

August

The air is a little heavy with humidity but the temperature has fallen to reasonable levels. I can feel the tipping point coming. The point when you’ve clicked your way up to the very top of the first hill of the rollercoaster and everything pauses, frozen in time, until gravity takes over and you rush toward the ground again. We’ve risen to the peak of this summer season and we will soon begin the pell-mell rush into autumn and winter. But for now, we sit at the apex of the year, still and peaceful.

Protest IS Patriotic

A stranger on the internet, disagreeing with my #protestISpatriotic hashtag, asked me what freedoms the current administration is curtailing. I have created this reading list for that stranger and any others who might be curious why I feel it necessary to be so political these days.

These are SOME of the things the Trump administration has done that I disagree with, that I believe are damaging to the well-being of our country, and that I protest out of patriotism:

Last Resort

Leslie had tried all the other numbers she knew. Nobody could tell her any more about tomorrow’s big project deadline than she already knew herself.

“What a bunch of morons,” she muttered to herself as she paced back and forth across her tidy bedroom. How was it even possible that they, having been in class all week, knew less than she did after being home sick the last three days?

There was no help for it. She only had one option left.

Promise Me

“Promise me,” she begged.

“I promise,” he whispered. He pulled her into the warm circle of his arms, where the air smelled of cloves and fresh hay and, best of all, him. This was where she belonged, where she wanted to stay forever.

“How can I trust you?” she asked. “How can I believe your sweet words? Words cost nothing.”