Jodi Thompson's Blog
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May.07.2013
My chin looks like a battlefield and my body feels like a soldier who fought on it.
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Mar.28.2013
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is telling young women to Lean In to corporate America, to “take a seat at the table,” “join the conversation.” She worries that we have put ourselves on the ‘mommy track,’ often before we’re even dating. She posits that a lack of confidence and ambition has led to the...
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6 comments
Mar.06.2013
Wheeeee, I’m sliding. Quick, thrilling, stunning. Then I see what waits for me at the bottom. Sharp, agonizing, ugly. I dig my heels in. I slow somewhat. I rest. The heels on my boots are worn smooth. I start slipping again. Downward. I reach out, grasping, burying my hands in the muck. My hands...
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8 comments
Feb.27.2013
Early this morning I received a response to a job application asking for writing samples. It is a position that I'm quite excited about, so I was thrilled.
Moments later my husband arrived home from his early morning gym visit.
"Guess what!" I said.
"You got a job," he answered...
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4 comments
Feb.21.2013
Come on, show of hands. Who has had those recurring dreams about having to go but not being able to find a bathroom? Or you find one, but it’s public, literally.
I once thought that those dreams meant a loss of control, figuratively. Then I came to realize they were only a way of waking me up...
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10 comments
Feb.20.2013
I'm here! Here with Regret and Dread, my faithful friends. They keep me occupied so I don't notice the present. They don't let me see or feel that I am truly here. Regret distracts me with her constant patter. She can talk, that one. And Dread? He makes certain I never slip into ease or comfort. No...
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15 comments
Jan.24.2013
Tonight I've been invited to join some friends as we create vision boards, you know, those arts and crafts projects that supposedly help guide your future. You cut and paste pictures onto posterboard in an effort to focus on what you want for yourself. You create it and put it aside, and your...
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13 comments
Jan.14.2013
There is a bridge on which I stand, useful only in that it provides me with an ability to soothe others' concern. Me, I'd rather be in the roiling water beneath it than stay standing on this bridge, unable to cross it - either forward or back.
So, I plan to burn this bridge. Soon, as soon as I've...
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27 comments
Jan.05.2013
I think we may be the only people with a Christmas tree still standing, lights on, in our living room. Everyone else has packed away the festive decorations. Not me, the skeptic. I won’t take them down just yet.
As the twelfth day of Christmas, The Feast of the Epiphany, Little Christmas, Three...
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9 comments
Dec.15.2012
3:30 a.m. Wake up coughing. Bad coughing. Get up for a drink of water, and coughing fit doesn't mix well with full bladder. Waddle to bathroom.
7 a.m. Wake up again to son and daughter-in-law’s cat looking out the window from atop good sweater. Husband left the door unlatched, yet...
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3 comments
Nov.28.2012
If I win I'll
give it to the victims of Hurricane Sandy
chuck all my worldly goods and hike the AT
buy my brother and sister-in-law a house
not quit my job
quit my job
still finish law school
travel the world
buy my church a new building
save my town's swimming pool
pay off all my bills
buy a new...
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4 comments
Nov.26.2012
“How would you like your cash?” I hear from the next bay’s speaker at the bank drive-through. I am depositing $250 in a variety of crumpled bills culled together moments ago at home after I realized I didn’t have enough in my account to cover mine and my husband’s health insurance premium and a...
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6 comments
Nov.19.2012
Our younger son and his wife moved in with us this past August so he could attend law school nearby in Philadelphia. They gave up their jobs and apartment in Georgia and moved much of the contents of their lives into our small house - along with two cats.
Ajax, a needy and rebellious black...
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15 comments
Jul.26.2012
I'm fighting that soul-sapping green-eyed monster. It gnaws at my gut, leaving me defensive and defenseless. I become someone I don’t like, yet, unfortunately recognize. I’ve been here before and never enjoyed the visit. I vowed to never return. I try kind words to buy my one-way ticket out...
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8 comments
Jul.17.2012
Little Aubrey visited our house for the very first time today! I held her for hours as her daddy packed up Little League and swimming trophies. She and I stood swaying gently in what was once his and his brother's room and will now be his brother’s and soon-to-be wife’s room as his brother...
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About Jodi
I had no intention of becoming a writer, never thought of myself as a writer, rarely wrote, yet loved language.
One of my first classes at Penn was Biography, Autobiography and Fiction with Dr. Irma Lustig, an amazing teacher. We read diaries and papers of...
Connections
Causes Jodi Thompson Supports
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Jodi’s Favorite Books
The Poisonwood Bible; Turtle Moon; Yellow Raft on Blue Water; Ahab's Wife; The Red Tent