Lara Austin Shoop – For me, dealing with death has been like a long inhale. I started holding my breath last October and I haven’t exhaled since. I’ve been moving through days breathing in short gasps- enough to keep me alive but not really living.

Leslie Jones 

“If I could go back, I’d coach myself. I’d be the woman who taught me how to stand up, how to want things, how to ask for them. I’d be the woman who says,your mind, your imagination, they are everything. Look how beautiful. You deserve to sit at the table. The radiance falls on all of us.” – Lidia Yuknavitch

Tricia Boutelle

“What I want is to open up. I want to know what’s inside me. I want everybody to open up…to open up the earth. I know that underneath the mess, everything is marvelous. I’m sure of it.” – Henry Miller

Jackie Cuervo

“And the day came when the risk remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin.  This day came last year. This day is everyday. Today I am 49. I begin it stronger than the last. Holding firm to who I am, loosening the grip where I must. This is my season.

Robin Ward – 

The gentle massage of his hand
His rhythmic swallowing
A milky smile
His body against mine so I can feel the rise and fall of his chest and his heartbeat if I allow myself to be still enough
His gaze upon me with my reflection staring back
The ritual dance of motherhood playing out daily, hourly
Succumbing to this season of life

Jessica Holleque

Josune Aizpurua Zaldua

“Vulnerability is about showing up and being seen. It’s tough to do that when we’re terrified about what people might see or think”-Brené Brown

Lauren Keim

“All the being and the doing,expansive,glittering,vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk with a sense of solemnity to being oneself, a wedge shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others…and this self, having shed its attachments, was free for the strangest adventures.” – Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse