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The shells were small and sharp, and the beach seemed more full of them than sand. Barefoot wasn’t really an option here, for they would cover your feet in tiny cuts. But now and then, as you trudged along, you’d find a big piece or maybe even an unbroken one, white with purple swirls, and you’d feel really, really small.

Posted By Ara On 06.20.2013 @ 5:11 am

Pairs of birds, mating for life; pairs of running shoes, some so toxic they are banned from the house before being washed; lost socks, no one to pair with at the sock party…is two the magic number or it three? Should there be a pair of children or is one enough?

Posted By Ara On 06.18.2013 @ 5:13 am

She was strung out, unable to focus, every bit of stimuli too loud, too distracting, unbearable. Everything hurt and she just wanted to shut it all down. “Get it together,: she muttered to herself, her old roommate’s words echoing in her ears. “Get it together and keep it together.”

Posted By Ara On 06.17.2013 @ 5:04 am

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, or the wrath of a mother who feels her children have been wronged. And when momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. So look after the woman in your life or be prepared to suffer the consequences.

Posted By Ara On 06.14.2013 @ 5:15 am

Flee the drudgery and the monotony of everyday life – shake off the shackles of mortgage and a regular job and income and go where your dreams take you!

Posted By Ara On 06.13.2013 @ 5:07 am

Life coach, career counselor, athletic coach. Helping others realize their full potential, helping to guide their way, shines back on the giver – nothing quite so rewarding as running into someone years later and they remember you,and they say “hey, thanks. You taught me a lot.” If only those lessons could also be applied to the teacher.

Posted By Ara On 06.11.2013 @ 5:17 am

She did not suffer fools gladly, and because of such, was often called abrasive, cynical, outspoken, a bitch. But better to not sit there nodding and smiling dumbly while seething on the inside, letting injustices or falsehoods prevail, she thought.

Posted By Ara On 06.10.2013 @ 5:09 am

And now it’s time for a montage, a montage, the best part of any ’80s movie, showing a lot of stuff happening in a short time – training, failing, trying again, finally rising triumphant, ready for the big match, yeah! With awesome music played on synthesizers and the best of ’80s fashion.

Posted By Ara On 06.07.2013 @ 5:12 am

Pieces of a yearned-for life make up the page, rough edges, sticky glue, dreams caught by someone else and run in magazines, torn out and stuck together to make the impossible goal.

Posted By Ara On 06.06.2013 @ 5:08 am

The house felt secluded, even though it was surrounded by others. Perched at the top of a five mile hill – so high that snow came earlier and stayed later – it was warm, and cozy, and full of light – but damn, that hill made it hard to get anywhere and so anything other than snowboard in winter and go for brutal hikes in summer.

Posted By Ara On 05.31.2013 @ 5:46 am

It comes and goes as a fashion trend – the pick of teen girls in the ’80s, with hairspray and baubles and sunglsses; now it has resurfaced (again with the sunglasses) and perhaps most annoyingly, with children’s clothes. I guess it makes them easier to spot as they careen around their world, unaware.

Posted By Ara On 05.30.2013 @ 5:43 am

An angle in a triangle, a shifty, sideways way of approaching things, darkness. Has somewhat of a negative meaning, at least in my mind….grim, unclear, maybe not true. Unsure whether that is the real meaning or not…

Posted By Ara On 05.29.2013 @ 5:42 am

Delving deeper beneath the surface of her discontent, hoping for an easy answer (and therefor an easy fix) there wasn’t one single element, one point where it all went wrong. “It’s everything,” she said, smiling sadly. “It’s everything.”

Posted By Ara On 05.28.2013 @ 5:51 am

How much clout do you have, really, how much influence in your immediate sphere at work, with friends, with family? With strangers who see you on the street? That’s the question we as marketers are always trying to answer – find those influencers with clout and the rest will follow.

Posted By Ara On 05.24.2013 @ 5:43 am

A friend was recently let go from a job he didn’t like, which freed him up to pursue what he really wanted to do – make fly fishing accessories. Now he spends a good part of his day thigh deep in the river, casting out into the water with his fly rod, lost in the meditative rhythm of of the cast. I must say I’m jealous.

Posted By Ara On 05.22.2013 @ 5:15 am

That’s a trebuchet, he said, smirking at both her and the screen simultaneously. Not a catapult. Geez. As if her lack of knowledge about medieval weaponry somehow made her less intelligent, less desirable, less of a partner. You know what? She asked as the movie played on, “Fuck you and your trebuchet.”

Posted By Ara On 05.21.2013 @ 5:44 am

Sweet lullabies sung to a fussy baby at 3 in the morning, pulled from deep in the memory of when you yourself were a fussy babe in arms – or even gentle songs from more recent times, ballads, love songs, anything that is soft and comforting for the small, wailing creature in your arms, will do the trick.

Posted By Ara On 05.20.2013 @ 5:14 am

“It’s wafer thin,” he’d say, laughing,as he placed the tiny tab on his tongue, eyes closing briefly, smirking. “Wafer thin!” And he’d start gently laughing in anticipation of the ride ahead, 8 hours away from reality.

Posted By Ara On 05.23.2013 @ 5:10 am

My shoulder has a habit of betraying me, after years of abuse while climbing – getting torqued and stressed and worked in ways that they aren’t really necessarily meant to. Although we may have come down from the trees, I don’t think we are really supposed to spend so much time going up and up and up….but it’s so damn fun.

Posted By Ara On 05.15.2013 @ 5:18 am

Taking paperclips home from the supply closet? Not so much. Slipping booze into your 9 am coffee from the bottle in your desk drawer – getting hotter. Eyeing the hot young design intern and leaning over his desk so your hair brushes his shoulder and he can feel your breath on his neck….maybe. But oh, so, so fun.

Posted By Ara On 05.14.2013 @ 5:49 am

Auburn as a hair color is always cited as being so gorgeous, but isn’t it really just brown? “You have such wonderful nut-brown hair” my mother used to say as I assaulted it with bleach and dye, turning the nutty mass into a thick, tortured tangle of green and red and pink (although never all together.) I don’t even know what color it is anymore, after all these years.

Posted By Ara On 05.13.2013 @ 5:09 am

Soap makes a wonderful gift, perhaps, sudsy and bubbly and maybe rough and full of sand…wait, no, unless the recipient is super manly and likes it rough. Slippery and multi-colored and smelling of spring and fruit and promise. Yes. Soap makes a good gift.

Posted By Ara On 05.10.2013 @ 5:47 am

“Shut the hell up!” in a swirl of smoke and curlers and a stained, dirty shirt. “Can’t you see that momma’s watching her stories?” And that was his childhood, in a nutshell, slinking back to a corner of the piss-stained carpet, playing with a toilet paper tube, trying to quiet the sniffles and tears that rolled down his face.

Posted By Ara On 05.07.2013 @ 5:47 am

Ah, the overall goal of my life right now is to simplify and by doing so, hopefully live simply. Butit doesn’t work if only one half of the couple buys into the philosophy and is dedicated to putting it in place – otherwise, the resentment and sense of hopelessness takes the place of pride and progress.

Posted By Ara On 05.09.2013 @ 5:42 am

Dry leaves igniting and then in a whomp of air, burning and then done in a matter of seconds; the heart yearning, needing so much that it almost bursts out of your chest, setting your blood on fire with each beat; the hot red flush of shame on your cheeks as your secret is revealed.

Posted By Ara On 05.06.2013 @ 5:12 am

The timeline for delivering the project was overly aggressive, but typical of the agency’s attitude of promising the world, then taking it out on their staff. Sure, we can get that strategy presentation to you in a week, no problem – and then the late nights, the weekends, the glassy-eyed designers and snapping brand strategists. Oh, we can get it for you, and for cheaper then the competition – welcome to the marketing sweatshop.

Posted By Ara On 05.03.2013 @ 5:06 am

This business relationship is dissolved. No more. Friends enter the cut throat world of economics and capitalism, and gosh, isn’t great? And then comes the money, and the bickering turns into arguing, and then suddenly not only is the business relationship gone but so too is the friendship. Be warned.

Posted By Ara On 05.02.2013 @ 5:13 am

So loaded, this word. Do regular adults who go about their day to day, their mundane 1st world existence, actually have enemies/ Maybe people they don’t like. Maybe people who feel have slighted them or vice versa (and even the word, slighted, like a little inconvenience?) But real, honest to goodness enemies? Hard to imagine.

Posted By Ara On 04.30.2013 @ 5:14 am

“You have to be kind to crows”, my grandmother always said. “They are emissaries from the other side.” As if being kind to them was a choice – I suppose you could go and hunt them, but really, they exist almost outside the normal plane of experience – so smart, able to use tools, recognize human faces, and communicate this to their young. Damn straight you better be kind. She really should have said “Don’t mess with them, child, or you’ll be in for a world of hurt.”

Posted By Ara On 04.29.2013 @ 5:08 am

“Take the skinheads bowling, take ‘am bowling” is the refrain to an old song that damn if I can remember the name of the band. It was used in the opening credits to the Michael Moore film about the Columbine shootings – and is meant to show tolerance and acceptance even for those whose actions you despise. Win them over with honey and not veinegar. And it is insanely catchy as well.

Posted By Ara On 04.26.2013 @ 5:03 am