Talk With Your Sister

*Trigger Warning* This post is about mental health and suicide. Even if I don’t actively think about what happened this month, the reminder slowly creeps up. Thriving at work. Checking things off the list. Making big strides in debt management. I feel like I’m doing great and moving along in life the way you’re supposed to. Then, I start to slowly feel my energy depleting. Thoughts start running f...

There’s a blue bird in your heart, and I touched its cage… A few years ago a friend told about a poem by Charles Bukowski’s “Bluebird”. When I finally listened to it—​really listened—​I heard more than Bukowski’s gravelly confession. I heard something familiar. A sound I heard from my father, male cousins, uncles and even my male friends. I never understood it until that poem. The sound? A cry for...

Bleeding Pink was one of the first pieces I wrote after finally coming to terms with the end of a seven-year whirlwind relationship. That relationship felt a lot like the teacup ride at a carnival. It started off slow and sweet. With gentle smiles, steady spins, just enough motion to feel safe. You think, “This is nice. This is safe.” And then the spinning picks up. Faster. Harder. Dizzying. It ma...