I spent the last day of the year walking through a pine forest and a field, a clearing at Daniel’s Peace Memorial Park. It’s a lovely place, imbued with love and pain and magic. When I say that I felt held by a place, I mean just that — I felt held. I felt seen, [...]
Tag: grief
New essay up at Pigeon Pages: “Roadmap to a Fire”
"What happens when we juxtapose? Do the unrelated become related based on their placement? Do they share energy, tossing it back and forth, creating a link where one didn’t exist before? I sat at the bottom of the stairs for a while and stared at my hands. I couldn’t remember the last time he told [...]
I have a new essay up at one of my dream pubs
Let me get this out of the way: I'm really not a cool kid, so I'm just going to let the awkward fangirl in me hang out. I love Catapult literary magazine, and pretty much all of the work they're doing, honestly. The writing is diverse, engaging, and spans a variety of perspectives and topics. [...]
2017 in the rearview, and a pilgrimage to my childhood home
The day after Christmas, I loaded up a rental car and drove back home, alone. Not Ohio home, but original home: the place that bore me, that contains just over a third of my life’s memories.
‘Do you hear that?’ It’s joy and chaos, both
It’s normal, around each holiday, each milestone, each moment we are expected to come together with family, to remember those who are no longer staunchly in the land of the living.
A tripped wire in the universe
"All I wanted was for the summer — that terrible season of loss — to end."
A few notes on gratitude & the holidays
Love and thankfulness start in the kitchen. The Italian parsley drying on the sink. A half lemon left over from dressing the food. A bulb of garlic, inquiring eyes, and finally, a beautiful bird prepared by my mother.
ashley bethard 