The Survival Skills I Learned While Growing Up In a Cult
Being tough for a girl was different. We spent long days enduring the abuse of boys, but the way Mother navigated the mountain was like the way she flowed through the gauntlet of Grandpa and her brothers, who enforced our silence. In all terrain, Mother moved like water. READ MORE
Love in the Time of Low Expectations
I never heard “I love you” from anyone in my family of origin, and I spent years of my adulthood achieving respectable accolades to earn those three words. READ MORE
You Don’t Need a Degree:
And newspapers are dead, so why is journalism even part of the college curriculum? READ MORE
How Growing Up in my Dad’s Gruff, Scary World taught me to Land on my Feet (Every Single Time).
There are only a few phrases my father has ever spoken aloud to me. “I love you” is not one of them. READ MORE
He didn’t know how to take care of his plants — or my needs
I don’t know who Kyle used to be. He was dead when I met him. By the time we met, he was a single stick poking out of fertilized soil, an assuredly dead stump without a hint of life. READ MORE
How to Embalm Yourself Before You're Dead
I learned to be a mother by caring for my younger siblings and newborn cousins in the cult into which I was born, until I partly grew-up and had four children of my own…I was never a child. READ MORE
Stick a Starry Night Sky on Your Ceiling
If you have a backyard or balcony and a clear moonless night, you might be able to look up and glimpse a few stars. But with the effects of light pollution, if you want to really see the stars — and lots of them — you’ll need to bring them to you. READ MORE
When I Left the Cult I Was Raised In, I Learned What a Family Could Be
Spending my childhood preparing for the Apocalypse exacted a price on my ability to trust, particularly in the concept of family. READ MORE
Why I Give my Love Away.
I don’t give love in order to receive love. I love because it’s the air I want to breathe, the world I want to live in. READ MORE
Plant Tats
I felt lost when I left their mountain, and for years I struggled to find a place to belong. Like the parents I interview here, nature tattoos have helped me reclaim my body as home. READ MORE
David Foster Wallace Said I Spoke to Him Like He Was a Dog
I LEFT A voice message for Dave the day he died. READ MORE
The Thing with Feathers: On mountains, climate science and hope
I ask him if he thinks it's too late for humans, if the levels of extinction we're witnessing in the animal world will eventually extend to us. I ask him if we've passed the tipping point, or if there's still hope we can curtail destruction. READ MORE
How I Healed from Childhood Trauma with Savasana.
I didn’t react because I have lain in stillness so many times in savasana and fought the urge to flee, I know what staying feels like. Sitting with pain feels hauntingly familiar. So, I opened the door and let it in. READ MORE