The Value of Voice-only in Times of Stress — By Kimberly Dark During this time of social isolation, many of us have turned to video calls to resume not only our work, but our social lives, yoga and fitness classes, family connections. We may even be using video calling when we used to just make a quick phone call…

By Kimberly Dark Big things are happening in the world right now. Fear takes us out of the present moment, which for most of us, is not actually dire. (Seriously, it isn’t; you’re reading an article on an electronic device.) Anticipation and uncertainty suck, but they are not the same…

Should anyone be forced to save a life against their own will? — Does it actually matter when a new life begins? A person capable of having an abortion is already life in process. That person is a decision maker — the only one tasked with the very complex job of stewarding the contents of a uterus that may or may not contain…

By Kimberly Dark I learned years later that my mother went to the church for guidance. Why wouldn’t she? She was part of that congregation, and her parents attended as well. It’s only natural that she should bring a difficult family problem to her community of faith for input —…

By Kimberly Dark In my dream last night, I was raising a child in some kind of low-class addict’s crash-pad. She was a toddler. After I woke up on a mattress on the floor to the sound of some guys setting up a keg on the front lawn, I found…

By Kimberly Dark The Story He Can Understand “Let me talk to him,” I said to her as the officer walked around to her side of the car. A busy road on a hillside – the…

By Kimberly Dark It happens every month or so. Look, I’m not bragging, but it happens. Some young person — often a woman — tells me that I’ve changed her life through storytelling. She says that she never thought of herself or her behavior or her identity or her body…

By Kimberly Dark Three times this week, I witnessed yoga students, over age fifty, struggling into poses that likely sent them searching for the ice-pack later. One man and two women. I’m guessing about their ages; over fifty is erring on the side of youth. The first student was new…

Food foibles across the generations… By Kimberly Dark It’s weird to have a mom who doesn’t diet. That’s how my son grew up. He told me that when he was small, he didn’t even know I was fat. I weighed between 280–315 pounds during that time. To him, being fat…