I made the decision to stop running. I stopped fearing the literal darkness several years ago after realizing that it was only a canvas. It held only what I projected upon it. Now for the sucking darkness that taunts me from the center of the vortex of fear and anger and grief and rage. This darkness, unlike literal darkness that I experience after the sun sets, lives entirely within me. How can I be so afraid of and resistant to something living entirely within me? Since I h

Quicksand. Whirlpools. Tornadoes. Black holes. These sucking, capturing, destroying images have haunted me forever. In dreams, in stories, in patterns throughout the unfolding of my life. I pull forward toward the life that I believe I want. And then, the swirling magnetic pull of my past insidiously shifts the course under my feet, and before I know it I am heading back toward the void. Back toward the black hole. Back to the center of the tornado, the sucking vortex of obli