To the children

Her hands glide across the cool granite Daily a battle for the woman with him. He lies in wait to crush her simply on a whim. Cold and smooth she scrubs Then she sweeps across the floors His eyes fixed upon her Thinking thoughts she abhors Caressing the skin of her baby hearing the coos …

Black Eye, Blue Sky

All Savannah wanted was to be loved and cherished, but her husband had other plans.

Black Eye, Blue Sky

  I’ve spent the last three years writing a book and it’s so close to completion, I can feel it in my hands. And the cover!  Thanks to artist Melinda Martin, it captures the essence of the story: All Savannah wanted was to be loved and cherished, but her husband had other plans. Savannah’s heart …

The Smile in front of the Pain

One of my favorite lines from the movie Elf is when Buddy says “I just like to smile. Smiling is my favorite.” I like to smile, too, and these days, it’s truly coming from an authentic place. But when I was younger, it was sometimes to hide pain that was too shameful to talk about. This …

Red Clay Mountain

I skip, he runs, like best friends do, across the crunchy gravel road, no cares to carry taking us to the mountain of red-orange clay to run and wrestle the dirt that stains the white within an inch of it.   I am four, he, five; our friendship igneous by our love of the earth. …

You must leave your abuser to find Joy

You'll never find joy if you stay with your abuser. Why?  I'll give you my top three reasons. There are so many, but I'll stick with three for now.  An abusive spouse/boyfriend becomes your prison guard...from which to escape. He controls you. The way he treats you, which is a systematic plan of dominating you, …

Domestic violence hits close to home

We were just back from our honeymoon when my new husband didn't like something I said, and he backhanded me across the face.  It was the first time he ever hit me. I sat, stunned, my teeth ringing, as his wedding band, the symbol of forever love, smashed into my mouth. I tasted blood. My …

Run Free, Woman!

A friend of mine told me about a church she knows of that is exacting discipline on a woman because she filed for divorce from her husband. She claims he emotionally abused her. The elders, all male, in the church say that she has no “biblical basis” for divorce. Therefore, they are “disciplining” her. I’ll make …

Do You Feel Trapped?

I’m not talking about when you’re driving in 5:00 traffic and the universe has it out for you because each time you change lanes, the lane you ease into slows down to a crawl. Or when you’ve put all your weeks’ worth of groceries on the belt, there are two people behind you, and the …

Poetry and freedom

Don't go Please don't leave again Every time if feels like my heart will bleed to death Or I will cease to be It's not the same It's not the same without you here Birds don't sing Music don't play And I can't breathe Until you come home. As I sat on our bed watching …