Humanity: Raw & Unfiltered
Layla tells us that she was down to 500 calories a day when she saw God. We’re all at Bri’s house, the four of us knee to knee and shivering because her mom turns off the heat at nine. The basement TV is paused in the middle of an episode Read more
Emma had been kicked out of her house. This was a first, for Emma or for her siblings, and it really did not strike her as fair. She had not actually done anything, as in, performed an action or committed a crime. All she did was remind her mother of Read more
My father said, “You will be a perfect human.” And I wondered, as a child, if I was not human, was I serpent, perhaps? perhaps circle, eclipse, or parabola? the curve of a flat plane cutting through a cone? Was I, at all, beautiful? Women, they said, were not human. Read more
I sit in my mother’s lap and she cries, my father is enraged, my younger brother promises he would never ever treat a woman badly. He would never try to violate someone. My family members were not evangelicals— they were parishioners of a different kind, Baptists. When I read the Read more
Things are falling apart branches give in to the wind tree trunks thump to the ground twisters graze the barren land and houses fly unmoving sand resembles a curtain and seas collide taking earthly wonders into its swarming depts. Things fall apart like love and courage we no longer stand Read more
By the world’s standards, I was a good kid: I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink, I didn’t do drugs, and I didn’t get into trouble with the law. In fact, I was so squeaky-clean I was still a virgin. Without delay, however, I was counseled by church elders and advised I wasn’t a good kid by Jehovah’s Witnesses standards: I had shoulder-length hair, I attended rock concerts, I had worldly girlfriends, and I possessed a questionable record collection that included music by Stevie Nicks and Led Zeppelin.
There was a time in my life when I would rise with the sun every morning to usher in the new day. The flawless serenity of the new day’s light channeled the physical energy and spiritual fortitude I would need to meet every challenge and seize every chance to make Read more
Last night I had a dream that I was home with my children, and we heard a ruckus outside. The kids looked out the screen door to see what it was, and a huge, angry dog came thrashing at them, viciously barking and jumping up to tear at the screen. Read more