Home. Here.

Right after 9/11 my emotional reaction was that I could not leave New York City. It became of paramount importance to stay put as long as possible. If I left, I thought, they (who?) might not let me come back in.

I was not, of course, able to articulate that very well. I had numerous conversations with friends and family where they said, "Just come home." "You're welcome here." "Why don't you come visit?" It made me so angry. Why did they not understand? With time I understood that there was no way they could understand and I wasn't helping them any. I mostly let go of the anger. (I am terrible at letting things go. I'm trying to work on it.)

In the past couple of months several of my friends have gone through some awful stuff. They aren't my stories to tell but they've been my stories to listen to and support and help where I can manage. So often there's nothing anyone can do.

Well, wouldn't you know, I have bitten my tongue bloody on more than one occasion. At some point all I want to say is, "Come home." "Come here." "Sit by me." That's all it means, sit by me so I can keep an eye on you and feed you candy and make sure that you know that you are loved.

Just like me so many years ago, though, they know they are loved without having to sit on my ratty old couch. I have to trust that.

Another Channel

It's been so long since I posted on Kizz & Tell that some of you may not even know what that is. For anyone that needs an intro or a refresher, Kizz & Tell is my sex and reproductive health blog. I thought it might have been on permanent hiatus until a topic came to be (so to speak) this week. Remember that it's a blog about sex written by me. If you even suspect that you might be uncomfortable with those topics (sex, me, me & sex) please do not click through.

If you're comfy cozy with all that, I wrote a post about the cyclical nature of desire and I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Photo Challenge: APPRECIATE

This was a quiet one. I like the quiet ones. I don't mean that like, "Nobody participated" because clearly people did! I mean that the photos rolled in quietly with some peaceful and lovely (or disturbing images) and it all felt very quiet. It was cool.

I'm not sure if, initially, Our Bethany APPRECIATEd the gift of a birthday photo shoot but I hope she sees its high value now. I love this photo.

I hope Our Cindy would agree that it's wonderful to be loved but it's important also to be APPRECIATEd.

As I think Our Janet said over on Flickr, you have to APPRECIATE the clear warning!

This picture represents a middle ground that can't always be summited. My dog tolerates children but doesn't love them. A is a deeply empathetic kid who has been taught about respecting the feelings of dogs. When they get together they play training games and they both have a stupidly good time and really love being together. I APPRECIATE it more than I can say.


This next prompt is purely personal. HELP! That's it. I'm so busy I just need HELP! But you could interpret it in less dire ways. You can do anything you like. That's what's cool about these challenges.

Please enter by 9am Tuesday June 2nd for posting on June 3rd. Tag your photos with PHOTO CHALLENGE and HELP. Check out the wonderful work in our Flickr Pool for inspiration. Also, let me know if you have any questions. The  appropriate email for that is Kizzbeth117 at gmail dot com.

Photo Challenge: LEVEL UP

Oh, I think you're going to love these. I do!

Quick shout out to Our Janet for always ALWAYS tagging her photos. I went into the group to draft this post and the only way I could tell where the last challenge ended and this one began was by checking her tags. Thanks for keeping me in check, Janet!

I'm kicking this week off with this photo from Our Bethany for 2 reasons. One is that...you know, let me let her son, Fynn (not pictured), explain. Secondly because I pretty much insisted that she offer up this photo for this specific prompt and then I didn't use it. Sorry!

Our Cindy caught me by surprise with this one. She's been making her own ghee for ages and I was thinking that she'd leveled up in ghee expertise then I really looked at the photo. Leveled up. LEVELed up. Got it.

Many moons ago my mother, who Our Alisun knows, tried to get me to level up my cat guardianship. I still have to hide the leashes in the freezer. Clearly Alisun's cat is more evenly keeled.

Ha! I love it when Our Janet goes literal. Before I embiggened the photo and saw the comment on it I was thinking what a big up-leveling it was to drink one's wine from a crystal goblet!

The only time I get really serious about selfies (ussies?) is when I'm hanging out with my younger generation friends. I don't know what they think about it but they seem to have fun. We took a regular one first and then I felt we needed to level up.

Last but certainly not least, in the past month Our Lisa has gotten her braces off and leveled up to her 2nd degree black belt. She's getting more done before June than some people do all year! (People like me!) Congratulations, Lisa!


You know, I was mulling over Mothers Day when this came to me but, really, it could apply to anything. Next prompt is APPRECIATE.

Please enter by 9am Tuesday May 19th for posting on May 20th. Tag your photos with PHOTO CHALLENGE and APPRECIATE. Check out the wonderful work in our Flickr Pool for inspiration. Also, let me know if you have any questions. The  appropriate email for that is Kizzbeth117 at gmail dot com.