The first lesson presents when I am still wet and cold and crying after cold steel forceps pull me from the safe, warm sanctuary of her womb into a room where the air is heavy with sorrow. Suddenly, there is this light and it is loud and I am wiped and weighed and taken from
Yesterday was my birthday, but we don’t make a big fuss about birthdays around here. “It’s just another day,” I say every year. When I was very young, I felt a certain glow on my birthday, but I’ve had enough of them by now that the sheen has worn off the occasion. There are still
I’m joining in with a group of writers for Five Minute Friday where we’re given a prompt (this week it’s SEARCH) and write for five minutes about it. Search. The word speaks me to my adoptee experience, and the fact that I’ve always searched. Once, I searched, in vain, the faces of people I encountered
Must. Stop. Reading. Just kidding, I’ll never stop reading, but I do have to stop allowing it to rob me of sleep. Or do I? Waking this morning, hours past the time I like to begin the day. Not a huge problem, but it messes with my routine. And I do like routine. Ah well—onward
When you share your story of struggle, you offer me companionship in mine, and that’s the most powerful soul medicine I know. Parker J. Palmer, On the Brink of Everything November is Adoption Awareness Month. At the beginning of the month, I pulled out the two, almost identical, gold lockets that had belonged to my
Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith Six-plus years ago when my book, Two Hearts: An Adoptee’s Journey Through Grief to Gratitude, was published I was terrified. I felt naked and exposed. I was, figuratively, both of those.
Adoption Loss is the only trauma in the world where the victims are expected by the whole of society to be grateful. The Reverend Keith C. Griffith, MBE I am gifted with an opportunity to meet and spend time with another cousin and his spouse, Ken and Valerie—he, the youngest brother in the family of
Over the course of the millennia, all these multitudes of ancestors, generation upon generation, have come down to this moment in time—to give birth to you. There has never been, nor will ever be, another like you. You have been given a tremendous responsibility. You carry the hopes and dreams of all those who have
Our stories make us who we are. And each story has its own purpose and its own reward. Each story rings true and each story is worthy of the ages. There is no such thing as an insignificant life. Laurence Overmire, New York Minute: An Actor's Memoir Here, in the sweetness of predawn I sit
The first draft of anything is shit. Ernest Hemingway Pardon the language, but Hemingway sums it up well. I’m 90% finished the first draft of my new book. With Gerry teed up for some serious hiking over the next while, there’s a reasonable chance I will complete this first draft on schedule after all. It’s
If you can make your ancestors real for yourself, learn their stories and who they were, your life - and death - will take on added meaning. You will see yourself in the Big Picture that includes all human life that has come and gone on the planet. Laurence Overmire, Digging for Ancestral Gold I’m