Stories


9
May 13

Still She Waits

A story…

She is standing at the stove when he walks in.  “Mom, when’s dinner gonna be ready?”

“Soon, honey.  The sauce is ready.  Salad’s in the fridge.  Garlic bread is in the oven.  There’s nothing more for me to do besides cook the pasta.  I’m just waiting for the water to come to a boil for the spaghetti.  We’ll eat when dad gets home.”

“K.  I’m just gonna get my soccer stuff for the game tonight.”

  Continue reading →


26
Feb 13

On Packing Light

Meet me on the hill – the one where
we used to start at the top and race to the bottom.

Remember how we’d pick the sunniest day
and wait until after lunch
when the grass had sunned enough to be warm.

We’d start at the base of the biggest tree,
lay on our sides,
stretch our lean bodies and scream as we rolled,
mowing over dandelions and Johnny Jump Ups.

We’d make crooked zigzags all the way down,
and for the length of the ride,
the world turned into a blur of puffy clouds and green grass.

We’d reach the bottom,
gasping and laughing.
We wouldn’t even brush off our knees
before we started back up again,
pumping skinny arms and legs to reach the top. Continue reading →


9
Feb 13

When Narcissism Runs in the Family

Guest Post by Jenn

I never knew anything about narcissism until I married into a family with three narcissists.  It was years before I made this discovery, and in those early years, I felt like I was losing my mind.  The particular family I had married into managed to turn narcissism into a generational art, and so every single member of this family (including the one I married) thought that type of behavior was normal. (Quick note: my husband is not a narcissist.  He has his own issues, but narcissism isn’t one of them.)  And because I didn’t agree with it, fought against it, and generally rattled the glass on their pristine cage… well, let’s just say it didn’t really end well.

For many reasons, at least one of these narcissists is still involved in my personal life.  Because of this, survival skills are a must.  Something I have learned from spending 12.5 years with a dysfunctional family full of narcissists is they will eat you alive and spit you out with a smile on their collective faces if you let them.  Am I angry?  Yes.  Yes, I am.  But most of the time, I’m able to move past that to the aforementioned survival skills which (along with about a year of counseling from a wonderful therapist) have helped me to keep my sense of self when the world felt like it was falling apart all around me.

Listen to your body.  This sounds silly, but when I sat down and thought about how North American society teaches us to take medication and ignore our body’s reaction to something, it made much more sense to me.  If being in a certain situation or around a certain person (or people), habitually makes you fell ill, uncomfortable, or like you need to be on Xanax, chances are your body is screaming at you to get away from whatever it is.

Educate yourself.  Once you’ve made the discovery that something is really, REALLY bothering you, it might be a good idea to see what you can find out about it.  I found that reading about Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) was very helpful in that it gave me an explanation for the behaviors I was seeing.

Get yourself some resources.  Jesse’s blog was like a warming balm on a spasming muscle when I found it.  There are other resources online, as well as books you can check out (or purchase, if you love highlighting as much as I do) that will give tons of information on NPD.  Another recent blog post that is very helpful can be found on TalkTherapyBiz.com. Continue reading →


17
Jan 13

On Broken Hearts

“Well,” the Goddess said,
“your heart didn’t heal straight the last time it broke.
So we’ll break it again and reset it so it heals straight this time.”
– Jane Yolen
 
 
 
 
 

*Maybe if we looked at it this way,
a broken heart wouldn’t seem insurmountable.


15
Jan 13

The Jigsaw Puzzle

She was too exhausted to untie the bundle.  He stood next to her and excitedly pulled at the bow that was wrapped tightly around the four corners of the blanket.  His hands were shaking.  He fumbled a bit, but the blanket fell open to reveal the most precious gift.  He gently placed the baby in her arms.  They didn’t notice the green organza bag that fell out of the blanket to the floor.

They cooed at the baby while the nurse placed the green bag inside an overnight bag.

__________

A couple days later a tired, happy, new mom unpacked the overnight bag.  Inside she found the shiny green bag.  Was it a gift from the hospital?  In her exhaustion, had she forgotten who’d brought her this unusual gift?  She opened the bag to find seven brightly colored pieces from a jigsaw puzzle.  Surely there was a puzzle somewhere that was missing important pieces.  Who could this belong to?

She was too tired to sort out the mystery, so she placed the green bag on the shelf above the changing table. Continue reading →


21
Dec 12

A Good Kind of Christmas

She had hoped he’d walk into the kitchen, smell the Spritz Cookies baking in the oven, warmly greet the kids, and come up behind to wrap her in his arms and whisper, “Merry Christmas, honey.”  Instead, he walked in, grabbed the vacuum and started bumping into their toes as he cleaned up flour dust and cookie sprinkles.  “Daddy, aren’t the cookies pretty?”  He took a few more swipes with the vacuum and said, “Yes, honey, now let’s start cleaning up this mess.”

She’d planned to stroll arm-in-arm, watching the snow fall, seeing the Christmas lights twinkle, and enter shops to jointly select Santa’s gifts for the kids.  Instead, he told her that he was too busy and shopping was a wife’s job.

She decorated the tree with ornaments the kids had made, hung the stockings she’d sewn for each of them, and hand-colored the Christmas cards she’d planned to mail to their friends and family.  He told her he’d already sent cards to his friends and family, and that she didn’t need to bother combining his list with her list.

She put lots of thought into the gift she would make for him – maybe a collage of photos from his childhood, or a shadow box full of keepsakes from his outdoor adventures.  He let out a sigh of frustration when he asked, “So, what should I be getting you this year?”

He’d sit on the couch and watch TV while she read The Tub People’s Christmas. When the kids giggled over the arrival of Santa in the story, he asked if they’d keep it down so he could hear his show. Continue reading →


16
Nov 12

When Your Best Friend is a Narcissist

Best friends have tea together.Guest Post by Anonymous

 

At the age of 12, she didn’t know why she cared so much about her friend, the one who was a notorious mean girl.  The one who played the games that mean girls do…  She didn’t understand why that friend mattered so much to her, even more than those she had known forever, even more than the ones who had proven themselves to be kind, caring girls….

She didn’t understand until nearly a quarter of a century later why that person seemed “right” – seemed familiar….  In the two years before she ended the friendship with her narcissistic friend, she often questioned herself, “Why do I even care so much about someone I don’t respect, someone that has hurt me so many times?”

She didn’t put two and two together, that the friend who called her names and ignored her, was a lot like her dad, who shamed her and ignored her. Continue reading →


7
Oct 12

A Ripple of Light

She sits in the glow of the computer screen, wringing her hands.  It’s late – kids are in bed.  She’d put her fingers on the home row and type, but she doesn’t know what to say.

She doesn’t know how to help.

She reads their words and feels their anguish.  She senses the tightness in their chests.  She hears the worries that keep them from sleep.

The instinct to want to protect their babies runs deep.

There is power in their anger.  The strength required to control their anger makes them far stronger than most. Continue reading →


5
Sep 12

The Anxiety of Narcissism

 

Guest Post by Zaira

A narcissist goes to the bar early on Saturday to watch a football game with his son, who is 9, and his friends.  He proceeds to drink all day, so much so, that he is passed out by 7pm and doesn’t wake up until well after his child has put himself to bed.

His son has called his mother and pleaded to come home at that instant, but she is restricted by the court and cannot pick him up from this situation unless his father agrees.  The son tried to wake his father up on numerous occasions with no response and is crying because he just wants permission to use the internet to entertain himself.  He is lonely and afraid to even turn on the television because it is against his father’s rules.

If his mother was to act in the best interest of her child, she would be faced with another contempt of court action by the father and even though he has driven home drunk with his child in the car and left him unattended in his drunken stupor, the law would uphold his complaint and hold the mother in contempt.

The mother talks to her son as long as she can, promises not to tell that he turned on the television, has him check all the doors to make sure they are locked, and says bedtime prayers with him after he tucks himself in.

At 2-something am, apparently after he has finally slept off the alcohol, the narcissist berates his ex-wife in an email accusing her of being irresponsible. Continue reading →


6
Aug 12

Bandaging with Humor

 

I thought better of it.

I tried to talk myself out of it.

I could come up with something else.

But I can’t quit laughing about the truth in this email I received right after he left town.  I got this from a friend who didn’t know what I was dealing with.  And he got it from the hilarious world of the internet.  (Timing is everything!)

 

The wife left a note on the fridge:

“It’s not working.
I can’t take it anymore!!
Gone to stay with Mother.”

I opened the fridge, the light came on and the beer was cold…….

What the hell is she talking about?

 

It’s funny because it’s true.

 Laughter heals.


4
Aug 12

On Old Wounds and Changing Bandages

“Can I see you when I get out that way?”

She replied to his email – the one she shouldn’t have opened – with, “As friends.”

He didn’t like that answer.  (Do guys ever like that answer?)

He waited to call, hoping she’d make the first move.

She didn’t. Continue reading →


30
Jul 12

Mom, Why Would Somebody Hack Your Site?

“You guys, the site was hacked.”

“What do ya mean?”

“Somebody found a way to get into the site and change the coding.”

“How do ya know?”

“Aunt Pat called.  She said she tried to open a post through Google Reader and the link to the post said something about Viagra.  The Google search results are saying the site may be compromised.”

“What’s Viagra?”

“It’s a prescription a man might take to make his penis hard.”

“Why would a guy do that?”

“So he can have sex, I guess.”

“You need a prescription to have sex?”

“Nevermind.”

 

“So what are you gonna do?”

“I’ll have to fix it.  Maybe it’s time to start over.”

“But mom, the blog has helped you and us and other people.  You’ve been working on that for three years.”

“It’ll be okay, mom.  You lead a charmed life, remember.”

“Thanks, guys, but you don’t need to worry about this.  This is my thing to sweat about.”

“It’ll be okay, mom.  I just know it.”

 

“Mom, you know that stuff you were saying about Mercury in Retrograde?  Is it that?”

“It fits, dontcha think.”

 

“Why would somebody want to put Viagra on your site?”

“I dunno, honey.”

 

“Why would somebody hack your site?”

“I dunno.”

 

“That’s dumb.”

 

“That’s mean.”

 

“I know.”


17
Jul 12

A Wink From the Universe

She certainly didn’t need another cup of coffee.

She looked inside her purse to make sure the box of Pepcid was there.  She wouldn’t have been surprised if – in the panic this morning – she’d left it on the kitchen counter.

Good.  There was the Pepcid.  She took one with a sip of cold coffee.

The worst part about these court appearances is that they were early in the day – too early for liquid courage.

At least the kids didn’t have to be at this court appearance.  It was stressful enough without having to consider the emotional fallout from the kids.  It’s not like she could pump them full of antacids.

__________ Continue reading →


25
Jun 12

On Building Character

It was her job to load the splitter, catch the split logs and pass them to the stacker.  They developed a rhythm as they worked, stopping only to drink water or wipe sweaty brows.  They enjoyed a sense of accomplishment, congratulating each other as the stack grew.  The hard work earned them the beers they would enjoy on the deck that afternoon.

Logs with knots were tricky for the splitter.  She’d learned that when a log doesn’t split all the way because of a knot, she could lift the log over her head and slam it down on the ground with all her might.  The force would split the log in two.

Sometimes.

That trick didn’t always work.

Some logs were tougher than others. Continue reading →


2
Jun 12

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up – 3

By the end of the third full day of rain, we’d filled our Yahtzee pages and played enough Aggravation to understand how the game got its name.

We’d run through Oh, Hell and Cribbage, too.  In a desperate move, I suggested Trivial Pursuit, even though I could clearly remember how the game was a yawn fest when I was a kid.

Jenny escaped to the garage to work on a project with grandpa.

Will, grandma and I dusted off the Trivial Pursuit box and pulled out the cards.   It wouldn’t be long before we’d lose Will.  We fumbled with questions like, “What team retired baseball player Stan Musial’s No. 6?” and “Who’s the barber in The Barber of Seville?”

It was Will’s turn. Continue reading →