When I was 5-years-old, my grandfather, a photographer, decided that the shot he wanted was me, naked, standing on the diving board of his pool in Los Angeles. He took a lot of pictures of me when I was young  - maybe because I was the first grandchild, the first...

This is me just after I've woken up, completely unassembled. It's me before a shower or a workout, me before I know what comes next, before I get all smart and strategic, before I pluck my unruly eyebrows or go after those persnickety chin hairs. Me before I examine...

After seeing pictures of children in cages, it’s nearly impossible to write about anything else. Even writing that sentence makes me uncomfortable – mostly because to go on living as we do – just the regular stuff; get to the bank, stop by the market, write the blog...

Because in a world that has become even crazier than I can remember, and I hear myself telling friends how busy and tired I am, when making a date with someone can take me weeks, and texting is the new talking, when losing my phone feels like losing an arm, and...

“Maybe you’ll teach me how to love.” That’s what he said to me as we lay in the sparse grass by the creek near his cabin. I didn’t know about that, though I did suspect that I was going to need to teach him about the conjunction of your – as in, your purse – and...

That everything is actually okay - that your life is practically charmed; You're not sick, are surrounded by people who you love, and who love you. You have work that is built on words, a career you conjured from air, feathers and wood smoke, a schedule you made...

A couple of days ago I was standing in my kitchen before a class with a couple of my students, Mary and Christy, and I was telling them about all the mistakes I’d been making lately, dropping balls left and right, and Mary, who teaches a desktop publishing class at a...

27 Ways To Tell a True Story Write from where you are. Don’t think about what others might want to hear. Think about what’s moving through you. What’s actually moving through you now; the man you ended a relationship with a few months ago who you know you shouldn’t...

Last week I sent a letter to 25 of my posse asking them to help me find a sweetheart. I thought of it like a barn raising, like something I had to reach out into my community to get help for, something I couldn’t do entirely alone. I’d been on the dating sites off and...

Jupiter and Venus A few weeks ago I read that if I got up before sunrise on the following Tuesday morning I’d be able to see Venus snuggling up close to Jupiter in the sky. Two bright orbs winking at each other – something that hadn’t happened in a long time and...