Tonight I sat on my husband’s grandmother’s bench in our backyard with Izzy and waited. I waited for one of the boys to whine or run home from the next-door neighbor’s house, where I hoped they had gone after fussing over whether they had to eat all their dinner and then not eating all theirContinueContinue reading “The Stillness”
Author Archives: Sarah M. Wells
Swing Voter
In 2004 I went door-to-door for George W. Bush, certain he was the better option for president. I loved that guy and believed he stood for everything I believed in, that he represented me and my interests, that he was the best man for the job. I was 22 and knew only my healthy, safe,ContinueContinue reading “Swing Voter”
Maybe this happened because…
The other morning as I got ready for work, my thoughts turned as they often do these days to my mom and kidney cancer. Her latest scans show more growth in her lung’s lymph nodes, and she’s having to deal with insurance and ridiculously expensive drugs and decisions about next steps. Maybe this happened because…ContinueContinue reading “Maybe this happened because…”
This Week in Books and Words and Legos
It’s a big week for me as I head up north to the Festival of Faith and Writing. I love this conference, and at this year’s event, besides hanging out with a boatload of truly excellent people, I get to meet my agent face-to-face. I’m also going to be reading at One Poet, One Poem, andContinueContinue reading “This Week in Books and Words and Legos”
The Body Is Not a Coffin
Over a decade ago, I started scratching down the clippings of diseased rose stems and transplanted Black Eyed Susans alongside the ache and emptiness of miscarriage. The Word doc morphed from computer to computer as we moved from Ellet to South Akron to Ashland to Copley. The story kept changing and growing, from one miscarriageContinueContinue reading “The Body Is Not a Coffin”
Okay Google
It’s so easy to find out stuff. It used to be that if you needed to find out when to prune a grapevine so it might produce some fruit, you’d go to the local library, and maybe they’d have a book or maybe not, and you’d request an inter-library loan so the book could come,ContinueContinue reading “Okay Google”
Night Driving, On the Road
Every once in a while, I get an itch to up and leave. After high school, after bickering with my parents over something, I yell-cried-sung with my boyfriend to Tim McGraw, “Take me away from here / make it seem like we’re a million miles away / another time, another place.” He was my sureContinueContinue reading “Night Driving, On the Road”
Going It Alone
Mom and I sat in a Panera Bread on Wednesday afternoon sharing a cinnamon crunch bagel and drinking coffee, debriefing on the official CT scan results that arrived in her myChart box earlier that day. I told her how, when I read her email, I had to talk myself down, breathe and weep, again, about theContinueContinue reading “Going It Alone”
Speak, Memory: Joy and Anguish
A couple of weeks ago now, we went to the meeting that we had been anticipating to find out whether my mom’s IL-2 treatments worked. No change. The tumors didn’t shrink and the tumors didn’t grow. It wasn’t the best news and it wasn’t the worst news. It was just news. So. Here we are.ContinueContinue reading “Speak, Memory: Joy and Anguish”
Eyes Above Water
This morning I read the first few verses of the Book of James for a Bible study, and now, lodged in my mind are the words, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (1:2), alternating with Elvis Presley bellowing, “Lord, this time, youContinueContinue reading “Eyes Above Water”
Sarah Marie Wells 