Personal Development

River

"Fork you! (bw)' © Éole Wind , 2009. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Fork you! (bw)‘ © Éole Wind, 2009. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

“You have to entertain the idea that maybe you were wrong.”

Not that I did anything bad. Not that I misheard or acted incorrectly. But wrong in the sense that the things we used to do did not mean what we thought they did. That those same things did not make us who we assumed we were because of them.

Our brains make the same patterns over and over again. Connections reinforced our entire lives. Neurons working like muscles in groups. The most often used pathways become stronger and the others wither. Rivers cut so deep into the earth we assume they will never reroute. But they are. With time. With practice. With interference. Continue reading →

Mental Health

Source

"Nail in the Fence" © Grant Frederiksen, 2014. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Nail in the Fence” © Grant Frederiksen, 2014. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
“You have a really strong core. Great muscles in your lower back and shoulders. It’s just that a lot of them are holding things kinda, you know, in the wrong place.”

He spent thirty minutes trying to get parts of my anatomy I never learned the name of to release my left shoulder. Let it fall down, shift back. Slide into the place it used to reside. Before the motorcycle crash. Before I started leaning on it while studying, reading, writing. Before I forgot how to relax. Continue reading →

Poetry

NOLA

"Cypress Mystery" © Peter Barker, 2011. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Cypress Mystery” © Peter Barker, 2011. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Lars rolled down the window of his truck
Proffered me a cigarette
I sighed heavy, shook my head
Took it
Coughed hard
It’d been three months

“Pull up over here, man.
If I’m smoking on this trip
I need a pack of Newports.”

“When did you start smoking
menthols?”
Lips peeled back in disgust Continue reading →