Our group of six women sat around the conference room table of Waverly Hematololgy and Oncology, the place where I'd received my chemo years before and now participated in the first Expressive Writing Group. Mary Barnard, Office Manager and poet, was our group leader and was certified in teaching the Write to Heal program created … Continue reading Digging Up My Buried Shame
#solojourneys
Come Ride with Me
I've always been fascinated by trains. When I was a girl, there was a freight train that crossed through our farm. Sometimes it transported logs, and most of the time, we didn't know what was carried in those boxcars. When I was in first grade, Mama and we three daughters boarded the train in our … Continue reading Come Ride with Me
The Stranger on the Bus
We stood at the West Tisbury shuttle bus stop on a Saturday afternoon in Martha’s Vineyard. I’d been experiencing that island in Massachusetts for the first time, staying in a hostel for $27.00 a night—the only way I could afford that expensive place. I’d enjoyed the morning at the Farmer’s Market at the Grange Hall … Continue reading The Stranger on the Bus
Depth of Despair
We sat in front of the television eating our barbeque sandwiches and watching Perry Mason reruns. My cousin, Linda, had loved that show since she was a twenty-year-old when it was produced in 1961. I remembered seeing it as a girl, and at the time, I didn’t appreciate how handsome Raymond Burr was—which I saw … Continue reading Depth of Despair
Happy Wanderer
I should have left an hour earlier. That’s what I said to myself when I was in bumper-to-bumper traffic for almost an hour, just after leaving Jacksonville, Florida with a seven-hour drive ahead. My rental car was due back at Raleigh-Durham airport by 8:00 p.m. and I didn’t want to add an extra day of … Continue reading Happy Wanderer
Bridge St. Breakfast: People in Our Path
Saturday morning of my Florida pilgrimage began in the usual way; taking my morning walk and praying for God to bless me and the people in my path. Starting with this intention fills me with curiosity about who I will encounter along the way. While most of the day would be spent with my cousin, … Continue reading Bridge St. Breakfast: People in Our Path
Celebrate Your Life
In four days, I’m having another birthday. My husband, David is just five months older than me and once we hit sixty, several years ago, he took on a particularly disenchanted attitude about having birthdays, saying he just wanted to “forget about it.” But I came back at him with, “You should celebrate every year … Continue reading Celebrate Your Life
Stepping Over the Threshold
One week from today, I’ll leave on my yearly pilgrimage. For months those days have been blocked out on my calendar with very little thought about the actual journey. Now that I’m almost one year into my retirement from school nursing, I find that my life has been filled with new activities to take the … Continue reading Stepping Over the Threshold
Better than a Pen Pal
One of my favorite classes in elementary school was geography, especially in Miss Harrington’s fourth grade. I loved how we learned about the lives of people in faraway places. Back in that day, we would say they lived ‘overseas’ and that seemed like an insurmountable distance. The only people in my family that had traveled … Continue reading Better than a Pen Pal
Sedona: A Serendipitous Journey
Taking yearly pilgrimages started after my serendipitous journey to Sedona. What made that such a pivotal point, was the juxtaposition of entrapment with freedom. During the preceding eight months of cancer treatment, I’d been closely monitored; by the clinical trials research company I worked for to see if I was able to do my job; … Continue reading Sedona: A Serendipitous Journey
Connie Rosser Riddle 