Lisa Geichman Prosek

During the last six months, I’ve been feeling more overwhelmed and unnerved by the blank page than usual. When I have written, I’ve spent much more time thinking about how the work fails than how it succeeds. I’ve found it far easier to totally avoid writing than to do it, even though writing stands as […]

On that day ten years ago, I looked up at the breathtakingly beautiful clear azure blue sky before I walked into my office building in Columbus, Ohio, and felt that everything was right. Things had started going well for me at work and with my family. For the first time in a long time, my […]

The smell of saddle leather thrilled me as Patches, my very own pony, stepped along the gravel road. Her brown and white head slowly bobbed up and down next to Pa’s as he led us around the block on which sat the little green house he shared with Nanny. Short for six years old, I […]

Writing is tough. Who would disagree with that? But, for me, the least of the difficulty occurs when I’m at the keyboard putting one word after another. And that process can be so difficult that my straight hair nearly curls because my brain’s pushing so hard. What’s even more difficult is getting my butt, brain, […]

By the time I held newborn Carter in my arms, it was all over. He’d won my heart. But getting there was quite a journey. All I could think about when I saw the photo of my daughter and son-in-law holding a positive pregnancy test was how I was going to look sitting in a […]

I hold my ten-month-old grandson, Carter, in my arms as we stand by the door waving good-bye to his parents for the evening. I’m not strong and find Carter so heavy that I can hardly hold him. Still, I manage to let loose with one hand and wave. I don’t much like doing it. I […]

Every morning after Romey, my fourteen-year-old toy poodle, has been pottied, fed, watered, medicated, and loved on, he and I go into the office and take our normal places on the loveseat. I set to work while Romey pretends to doze off. He gives me ten minutes to get fully involved in reading or writing. […]

It starts first thing in the morning, even before the sun wakes. I wish I could adequately convey how it sounds. As I write, I imagine that it’s a mix between a trumpet’s blare and a baby’s coo. It’s my cat, Bud, making his special cry for milk. He cries so hard and so long […]

My mother and I disagreed about everything. Religion. Politics. Women’s roles. Parenting. Fashion. Even cornbread. We spoke on the phone barely once a month and saw each other even more infrequently. Holidays, that was about it. Somehow, we stiffened our spines and got through them. Still, on July 3, 2008, when Dad told me Mom […]

His name was Steve. He was a high school student, handsome, muscular, and tan. Dreamboat. The brother of a friend, and I’d had a crush on him for a long time. All the other ten-year-old girls were looking at him, giggling, and flirting. All I could see were my feet holding tight to the side […]