Tattoo Trauma

May 27, 2025 / roughwighting / 107 Comments

I didn’t think she’d agree to it – my granddaughter. Months earlier I endured facial surgery to remove what we thought was an unexpected birthmark, which instead turned out to be skin cancer.

Originally 16-year-old Sophie told me my ‘birthmark’ was cute. “Looks like a heart, Madre,” she exclaimed, even though it was centered on my nose. After the surgeon removed the “heart” and the cancer was eradicated, I joked with Sophie, “Well, I guess we’ll just have to get a tattoo of a heart – you and me.” Continue reading →

A Dreamy Spring Break

March 29, 2025 / roughwighting / 105 Comments

I read the brochure and wonder: Dare I? Dare I not? This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go away without really going away at all.

Or, well, going far away to a destination unknown by taking a 15-minute drive to a tiny shop called “Dreamscapes.” Continue reading →

Opening Pandora’s … Vase

March 10, 2025March 9, 2025 / roughwighting / 85 Comments

I’m enervated and enthusiastic as I return home after meeting with some of my writing besties for lunch. Ah, the stories we share!

Smiling, I park in the garage, gather my purse and lunch leftovers, and open the door into my home, ready for a hot cuppa tea.

But then I stop as if an anchor is placed on my ankles. Something is wrong, or at least not right. I feel a subtle shift in the house. Yes, a shift.

Occasionally, I get this sensation; after all, a house is not a static object. It’s full of wood and plaster and beams and then walls and ceilings that absorb all the inhabitants’ moods and pains and joys and … I suppose some may think I’m weird. But living space is alive with energetic cells released by each of us. Continue reading →

The Invitation

December 16, 2024December 15, 2024 / roughwighting / 90 Comments

Katy searched for the correct way to reject the invitation. She was not inclined to meet Adam at midnight and drive to the open field 20 minutes away to see some famous “shooting star.”

Adam was a nice colleague, good-looking in an academic, black-glasses-hiding-thick-black-eyebrows kind of way, with a shy smile. Katy could tell he was interested in her. He acted as if she was a fairy princess who lit up a room whenever she entered. Continue reading →

with a Dash of . . .

September 13, 2024September 12, 2024 / roughwighting / 102 Comments

I beg Murial for her mysterious cookie recipe. I asked her five years ago, four years ago, three, two and now. Now, I ask her again as I take a small bite of this delicious, delectable cookie.