family memoirs | Fawn Rising

You Are There

If I Stand among war, greed, and hate, You are there. If I Struggle with enough funds to feed my babies You are there. If I Stare down choke-filled family estrangements You are there. If I Hold my dead child while trying to breathe into him You are there. If I am beaten into […]

Dustyn Runs Freely

On the first day of the last quarter of a year filled with global trauma, massive unlistening, hatred, greed, and war, my small solid grey Rescue kitty runs away. Two times he escapes boldly with a cry and a dash then returns home, and begs for more freedom. This, after living with his Rescue […]

Fawn Rises

Papa tells me. Oh, yes, he tells me! He tells me of the graciousness of the Japanese. We are among the first American military families to enter Japan at the end of World War II. The Japanese are deeply kind. We are not a wealthy family, yet we are accustomed to a privileged lifestyle involving […]

Along With Beating Up Little Boys…

…I walk them home, each of us crying and a bit bloody, then we have tea and cookies with their mothers. Upon entering my own home again I curl up in a fetal position against a wall and cry silent tears. I say nothing. A family of five children, we children never share stories […]

Thank You, Dear Sister

(Spoken Word Presentation) Oh, Sister! Oh, Sister! Oh, Sister of mine…I am grateful to you. You are a Spirit Warrior. My only sister ~ I love hearing about your life on your ranch. I love that you are bold enough to walk away from a family of origin fraught with giant red flags. There […]

We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

God’s Dear Ellen Joyce Gannon

“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the song without the words, and never stops at all.” ~ Emily Dickinson October 23, 1937 ~ April 25, 2020 Many times families and friends don’t realize how many people have connected with their recently deceased family member ~ nor how […]

The Dunns are Seldom Done

‘Tis true. The Dunns are seldom done. There is always, always, always another lesson, movement, offering, or action toward and for other humans which pops unto the screen of God’s intentional Film of Wonders To Be. Way down at the bottom of the birth order within this state-of-the-art family are two little girls, Julia […]

Bond~Less

How is a child to know of loving-kindness and acceptance How is a child to know of a constant desire for its well-being by its world How might we communicate to a child who is Unwanted Currying five generations of First Nation heartbreak In utero Japan’s radiation exposure Lead from World War II bomb dust […]

Awake, My Child, Awake

Concept source: Beginnings and Endings with gratitude to Henri Nouwen 1932-1996 and Reverend Dr. Clifford Hayes, Faith Presbyterian Church, Melrose, Florida. Many years ago our son enters this world on his father’s birthday. He is named after him. Such joy he brings his two sisters that they cannot contain themselves. They jump, scream, dance, sing, and […]

Don’t Swim ~ Float in the Water of Life

So many times I find myself fighting with the water of life. As a former competitive swimmer, breaking records, swimming strokes that were the most difficult, then later flying off to major in classical ballet at Florida State University at the age of forty. What was I thinking? I do not know. Human female ballet […]

No One Says a Word

I am six years old. We live on a military base in Germany. It is 1956. I am the child of a stunningly gifted First Nation Eastern Cherokee mother and an equally brilliant Irish father who is a major in the United States Army. My best friend and I play together each day on the […]

Papa

At twelve years of age, during the Roaring Twenties in Chicago, our Papa holds his mother as she lay dying of breast cancer. He is of Irish descent, birthed in British Columbia, and raised in Chicago. He’s been sent away while she slowly dies, yet he cannot eat and the doctors recommend he be returned […]

May I Have This Dance?

Play, darling! Be the energy I wish to attract Yet, no naivety allowed No being a baby View life as it is Gift your gifts to the world If abandoned Heal No blame Have fun and fantasy Speculate about great happenings ahead Embrace small joys Real true joys Be the broken crayons who still color […]

Chosen

I remember My brother Your heart when confronted with harshness Your athleticism in the face of victory or loss The way you squint your eyes just a bit when needing more information Your kitchen dance when sneaking food as you walk past a prepared dish for a formal family dinner, smiling the whole way Your […]