Category: writing
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Sunkissed
When the sun kisses my hair through the breeze cracks of a shade bearing tree, I feel beautiful. The sun nor the tree care about how old I am, for one, if not both, have been here longer than me. In this moment, I don’t need to reach for anything. I am just here, feeling…
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Presenting
For the first time in three years, I gave an in-person presentation at work. My team helped me craft and deliver it, and we shared our passion for our work, which ultimately helps special education students in our state. Driving into the office that morning, I had the worst nerves. I had forgotten how to…
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Band
Next to a field of wildflowers, under the last of the summer moons, we hosted a bonfire for my son’s marching band. As diverse as those flowers, the musicians gathered around a volleyball net and played, laughed, and lived fully in this moment of youth. I remembered my son, little and indignant. He was quiet,…
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Mom
Mom, mom, MOM, moooooommmmmm, I hear amidst the din of Saturday Costco shoppers. I’m hiding in the dairy, an old milk maid soothing a hot flash. They want to spend my money on twenty pounds of salty snacks that will go stale like my mood this insufferable July afternoon. Mom, mmmmmmmmmmom, m-O-m. How did that…
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Sight
Time has drawn shadows around my eyes. Lines etch memories around my smile. I can still cartwheel though in an open field on a sunny day, dandelions tickling my ankles. I can see more clearly now than I ever have. Progressives. Wisdom comes in a vitamin for 40+ year old women. I drink fruit-flavored tea…
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Lost
As I swim through grief over losing my father in February, I am also processing the concept of loss itself. My father is not really lost. I know where he is and is not. I will never hear his voice on the phone again. He won’t be physically present at family events. He won’t be…
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Night Cream
I wear night cream on my face during the day. Whenever anybody complains about aging and their looks, asking for tips, this is what I give them. Do I truly think it works? No, or rather, I don’t know if it does because I’m too busy living to count the lines. After I post this,…
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Perfect
I’m not perfect. I’m just comfortable with my imperfection. I wake up, mess up, and reset. Then, I knock it out of the park. I can do any order and combination of these things, and I’m perfectly comfortable with it. We were not born to be perfect. We don’t need to pursue perfection. We just…
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The Novel Pitch
Here is what I am working on this morning over a coffee flight. Elizabeth Benet Grey, named after her mother’s favorite Jane Austen character, finds herself tumbling into the trials of middle age with the unfulfilled dream of writing a great American novel. As her life starts to unravel, she convinces a trendy new bookshop…
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Today
“Today is the greatestDay I’ve ever knownCan’t wait for tomorrowI might not have that long” ~Smashing Pumpkins Today I decided to own my pending middle age. I turn 50 next year. 5-0. 5-Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I practice saying the number in the mirror as I study my face for new lines and spots. I’m okay it’s coming,…
Kelly Rogers 