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Divided, Standing

By Melissa Young

I haven’t been writing much lately. No poems or journal entries. A few social media posts that mostly quote other people. It’s okay to be fallow every once in a while, so I’m trying to enjoy the silence. This poem is one of the last things I wrote before the words evaporated, written on Veteran’s …

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Peculiar Treasures: May the Force Be With You

By Kellie Purcill

If you’d rather explore closer to home than a galaxy far, far away, perhaps you’d consider a road trip that comes from a book? This map contains twelve literary journeys – from Mark Twain to Cheryl Strayed – across mainland USA. Heroes come in all shapes, sizes, personalities and hair/light sabre colours – are you …

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Guest Post: Part 2: What therapy was actually like

This is Part 2 of a three-part guest post series about therapy after sexual abuse. Erin’s first post is here, and the final installment will be on December 31, 2016. – Kel, Blog Co-Editor Now this is not the point in the story where suddenly everything gets better. This first therapist, while a good person, was …

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Guest Post: Please Consider Trauma Therapy for Sexual Abuse

This is a difficult post to write. For some time I have considered sharing my experience with sexual assault and the healing I experienced through quality therapy. I have ranged between wanting to keep this experience private to wanting to shout to the rooftops. Ultimately, I have decided to finally share my experience because sexual …

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When God’s love is so big it makes you uncomfortable

By Heather Oman

If you are like me and are on Facebook far more than you should be, your feed probably looks a lot like mine this time of year. You have pictures of your friend’s children going back to school, you have a smattering of political posts that tell you that your candidate of choice eats babies (or BOTH OF THEM DO!!), you might have some people talking about how the air is changing and there is a hint of fall and glory be and hallelujah, we can all break out the pumpkin spiced theme parties.

And also, Brock Turner.

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Peculiar Treasures: Discuss

By Kellie Purcill

“The way we talk about [sex and abstinence] needs to change…People need to realize there is nothing that can detract from your worth. When it comes to rape and sexual violence and abuse, that can never detract from who you are.” A thought provoking interview with Elizabeth Smart. “Cleverness is overrated, and heart is underrated”. …

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Grieve With Us

By Sherilyn Stevenson

After this week’s bloodshed in my country, how do we collectively grieve, when we individually turn against each other? I went through a “rebellious” phase during early adulthood. Having avoided “R” rated movies up to that point, I thought, ‘By dang, I mean, damn, I’m going to watch some now!’ For some reason, I chose …

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The Headline Read “BREXIT”

By Melonie Cannon

We had been talking about going to the UK this summer for a few months, but never made any effort about actually planning it until about six weeks ago, when my husband said, “I’m getting time off starting June 9th. Let’s actually go.” I was unprepared and so for three weeks I scrambled to buy …

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Love.

By Sandra Clark

Sunday caught me by surprise. I was suddenly awakened in the end of the day to incomprehension. (I’m on vacation and caught the headlines late.) My soul aches knowing the power of fear and hate making more news. God surely weeps at the violence we inflict on each other. With guns, with words, and with …

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Names

By Justine Dorton

MY GRANDMA HAS LIVED two lives. She’s lived one life here, in St. Louis, as my Grammie—feeding her grandchildren cucumbers dipped in sugar, taking her first driver’s ed class when she was seventy-two, yelling into the telephone to make sure her voice made it all the way to my house, bossing her daughter (my mother) around …

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