makeitso

I wrote a poem over the last few days to work out my feelings about Mother's Day and my mother. I have nowhere else to share it, so I'm plopping it here, below. I think writing this was helpful for me, maybe? Not sure how I feel about the final work, but the process was actually pretty cool for working through my feelings, clipping them down. Does anyone else write for therapy, poems or anything else?

Perhaps this will resonate with some of you who have settled into similar relationships with your mothers to the one I have with mine. Anyway, here goes (dropping as an image because formatting is impossible):

Take care of yourselves today. It's tricky, being a woman with a complicated mother relationship. It's okay to feel however we do. I hope despite everything that's ever happened, that right now you have true, deep love in your life. With someone else, for others, for yourself...just some true, deep, unshakable love. You are worthy of that, just the way you are. <3

Well, we’ve had cars for a long time….but finally we’ll be testing them for safety for women, too.

In a sea of bad news, today this got me excited.

Never is the objectification of a people more straightforward and complete than when they are pictured covered by cloth that completely obscures their face and body.

These women are all dead now, and even in their death, looking back at this moment in time one hundred years later, we can’t see them. We see figures, placeholders for people who were only allowed parts of themselves in life, and who now in death are disqualified even from being a face from the past in an old photo.

These women have been reduced to their plight. Photos like these are the reason I object to ideologies which promote the notion of modesty for women. They cover your ankles, flashes of stomach, your wrists, your chest, your neck….reducing you bit by bit, until you are gone.

What a delightful read this was. A collection of short stories that really fly, not because they are "light" but because you are so hungry for more the whole time you are reading.

Ms. Engel has mastered the completely down to earth and practical telling of very compelling stories about people I've never considered (because their lives are both achingly ordinary and far away from my own experiences) but somehow now find entirely relatable.

The author truly and deeply understands humanity, and can paint it for you with near photorealistic detail, but in so few strokes. The efficiency of her writing is stunning and fun.

I highly encourage these stories for anyone who enjoys great character development and authors who are adept as using prose to open windows into the stories of others that are tiny, but somehow provide a very complete view, down to the soul, of the people and happenings therein.

Masterful. A treasure. I believed every word. I'm haunted haha...what else can I say!?

It is not often that I miss characters from short stories, or wonder about them, or need to know more...but I have found myself thinking about the people I met in this book a lot.

TL;DR: read it. Even if you think you don't love collections of short stories...just for the sake of truly, truly excellent writing, read it.

PS: I do not know why this picture is sideways...I have tried to fix it?? It wont fix??

What's a women's community without a nod to Joyce Arthur and her wonderful piece The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion? Truly a classic must-read for all people.

Regardless of sex or gender, or where one may fall in the debate around women's right to healthcare, we must all remain vigilant against the moral hazard of denying others access to healthcare (or anything else!) that we have found necessary and humane for ourselves.

I liked this story a lot. I would describe it as a survival sci-fi with some interesting twists, with questions about the nature of family, love, and humanity itself at it’s surprisingly tender core.

There is action and drama, even some heartache, without super graphic or gratuitous violence. I like the world and society that the author builds. I could feel the climate and the harshness of the landscape, the author did well there. I believed the characters and didn’t have a hard time understanding what motivated them.

I will read the next book…my only real problem with this book was how aware I was of the next book while reading this one. It really does read, especially toward the end, like the first of three or four books. It’s a clear setup for a trilogy.

Overall this was exactly what I needed and I’m glad I picked it up. I was in a bit of a reading slump. I do this thing at the beginning of summer, where I want a “beach read! fun!” but then everything I pick up that is “in that category” feels vapid and I hate it.

I love a deep sci-fi read, with winding, sprawling, endless world-building and detail that almost feels tedious…but this time I just wanted something lighter-feeling but engrossing, with characters I wanted to know more about and a story that made me turn the page. B-I-N-G-O.

TLDR; This really is a beach read for people who super dig sci-fi.

I liked this story a lot. I would describe it as a survival sci-fi with some interesting twists, with questions about the nature of family, love, and humanity itself at it's surprisingly tender core.

There is action and drama, even some heartache, without super graphic or gratuitous violence. I like the world and society that the author builds. I could feel the climate and the harshness of the landscape, the author did well there. I believed the characters and didn't have a hard time understanding what motivated them.

I will read the next book....my only real problem with this book was how aware I was of the next book while reading this one. It really does read, especially toward the end, like the first of three or four books. It's a clear setup for a trilogy.

Overall this was exactly what I needed and I'm glad I picked it up. I was in a bit of a reading slump. I do this thing at the beginning of summer, where I want a "beach read! fun!" but then everything I pick up that is "in that category" feels vapid and I hate it.

I love a deep sci-fi read, with winding, sprawling, endless world-building and detail that almost feels tedious....but this time I just wanted a lighter-feeling page turner with characters I wanted to know more about and a story that made me turn the page. B-I-N-G-O.

TLDR; This really is a beach read for people who super dig sci-fi.

Deciding whether or not to have children (instead of being resigned to it as an inevitability) is finally gaining social acceptability. But how do you decide such a thing? How do you make peace with the myriad lives you’ve chosen not to live, the experiences you’ve chosen to never have?

This piece is one of the most wonderfully written I’ve ever read about how to choose a path, and let go of the ones you’ll never travel. Truly an enjoyable read, even if you’ve already answered the question “do I have children, or no?” for yourself.