Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Sherrie Ann Cassel Tomorrow is the angelversary of the day I said goodbye to my son, my beautiful Rikki. I’ll not sit around today and ruminate about what was happening seven years ago on the day he died, but it was a beautiful day, as I recall, and we had been cruising around ChulaContinue reading “Year Seven”

By Sherrie Ann Cassel “There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west.” ~Robert Plant~ I was born in San Diego, in a hospital that later was used for a lockdown unit in a behavioral health facility. This historical fact still brings my mother such glee when she reminds me of my earlyContinue reading “The Odyssey”

By Sherrie Ann Cassel Today the world reopens into a brand-new year. Stores, banks, and post offices resume their routines, and we get back onto our roads and freeways to rejoin them after a time of celebration, rest, or grief over something loved and lost forever. The holidays are a rainbow of many shades ofContinue reading “Happy New Year — Again”

By Sherrie Ann Cassel Christmas, the Yuletide, Black Fridays at Walmart, or whatever you celebrate this time of year, thank heavens it’s over for another year. I made it through as did all who were grieving the loss of a loved one, a very recent loss, or the loss of a child from seven yearsContinue reading “Multi-tasking”

By Sherrie Ann Cassel I’ve loved, although I didn’t know it for much of my young life, formulaic stories, i.e., the messiah story, the hero, the anti-hero, from Bathsheba to Bukowski. I like walking in the parameters a writer works within. I’ve never read much fiction, unless it was deep, dark, and depressing. I lovedContinue reading “Healing through the Holidays”

By Sherrie Ann Cassel In the high desert, where my husband and I live, the winters are cold for this San Diego girl. Yesterday we had frost, no snow – yet. I remember the first time I went out in the cold. I like to shop early before the rest of the world gets up.Continue reading “Bittersweet Self-Care”

By Sherrie Ann Cassel Holidays are upon us. I don’t count Halloween as the festivity that kicks off the holidays, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve. January 22, 2023 will be the seven year anniversary of my son’s death. I get a catch in my throat and my eyes well up for a brief moment,Continue reading “Tidbits of Holiday Clarity”

By Sherrie Cassel Grief is odd; it can invoke tremendous rage and then just when the rage subsides, it is replaced with intense sorrow, deep in the viscera. Sometimes grief is existential, and sometimes, it is surface, and your skin feels raw, and your heart skips that beat meant uniquely for the loved one youContinue reading “Benevolent Anomalies”

By Sherrie Cassel I got up this morning, day two of a three-day weekend, for me, and turned on my computer and perused Facebook (I’m still on a news fast). I was listening to Led Zeppelin and thought about my son. He always told me he hated Zeppelin, but when he moved out, the firstContinue reading “The Absence of Presence and Gratitude”