What an incredible time to be alive as a woman on this earth. Twenty years ago, I became part of a movement of women who prayed that abuse against women would be revealed. We asked that human trafficking, slavery, violence against women, sexual abuse—everything that was so evil and still so hidden, diminishing women in the […]
When the Internet Explodes With Abuse, How Do We Respond?
by on May 26, 2015 59 Comments
[TRIGGER WARNING] I wish this were a discussion we didn’t need to have. Last week, the Internet blew up with news about the Duggar family. There was also news about a church harboring a pedophile, and well, any number of ongoing cases involving faith, family, church leaders, abuse, and especially, sexual assault. I grieve that […]
Like Maps On Our Naked Skin
by on March 26, 2015 35 Comments
I was 10 years old, all frizzy hair and gangly limbs, when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I began puberty right around the same time that she began chemo treatments. I grew breasts and started my period and learned to shave my legs. Meanwhile, my mother recovered from a mastectomy, waited for her […]
Women Who Rise
by on March 19, 2015 27 Comments
She’s the woman I think of when I think dangerous. With her cement church she literally built from the ground up, in a small village she never wanted to return to. The village where the scent of vodka floats on the air, and peppers grow as long as your arm. Where those who were meant […]
When Love Hurts: Reflections from the Other Side
by on November 10, 2014 13 Comments
[TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of emotional abuse + suicidal thoughts] By M. “You can commit yourself, or I will have you committed,” Robert, my therapist, said to me. I’d been in therapy for about a year. The small paneled office had been a lifeline for me over the previous several months, but today it felt like […]
