self-portrait This journey (and, lord, how I have grown weary of that phrase and its haphazardous use), has been teaching me a […]

Dear Dakota/Dakofo/Baby Bear/Baby Boy/Monkey Toe/Peach Butt/Magic Bean/Tyke, I had to include all your nicknames in there, right? As I start this letter […]

I was so delighted to be Maid of Honor in my best friend’s wedding this past Sunday. It was such a beautifully […]

Over the last week, I have embarked on a project that I did not plan to do. I was playing around with […]

I imagine this might be what it looks like when we die, and how it might feel; like being pelted with prisms […]

There have been times in my life that I’ve been so low I could taste the ground.  My mouth was filled with […]

And then she can breathe again, the fresh air of him plumping out her lungs, pillowing into her chest.  This is the […]

earth day — Nana used to say that she believed trees were people reincarnated, and you could tell what kind of person […]

This is a piece I wrote a year ago, but I have re-worked it here. — The body remembers. It remembers every […]

37 — Thirty-seven and here’s what I’ve learned: Always say yes to dessert. Enormous hills are meant to be rolled down. Only […]

gardening — Life tells us to bloom where we are planted; essentially, to accept our fate and make the best of it, […]

under seas — When I was a child, escape was crucial to survival. I would close the door to my bedroom and […]

closed windows — It can be a heady thing, thinking of all the other potential lives that lie just outside your own.  […]

for her — I have a vast collection of shells, many of which I didn’t even have to look for; they simply […]

move — These shoes are like coming home.  Every day, I remind my body of what it can do and from where […]

sur la pointe — Aching bones, shooting pains through the arch of my foot, toes that bruised and bled.  I was a […]

cage-free — He told her that her rib cage was big to accommodate the size of her heart.  Without the confines of […]

veins — The blue veins traversing beneath your skin are your map. Behind alabaster walls, a current roars through the delicate ropes […]

milk — And we were the girls who were told we’d be ‘spoiled’ if we let anything inside us before marriage; a […]

immortal spirit — The 1937 edition of Webster’s Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines ‘soul’ as: a word common to the Teutonic languages; Grimm […]

growing out — It’s all still there, in your lungs; the living memory of every gasp you took in fear or elation […]

skipping beats — This is a divine darkness that they pulse back and forth between them. The goosebumps that run a circle […]

the odds — We weren’t allowed to have TV Guide in the house because Helen believed that Jesus was coming back any […]

My body was made to move.  Lean child legs painted maps of escape through dense woods; abused toes stood en pointe, calf […]

image © jennifer summer | 2013 her dream self is wrought with a bursting bliss pain earthquakes splitting her in two life […]