Patricia Struntz's Blog
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Nov.18.2012
A usually pleasant journey home from my son’s house was turning nasty –and not just the weather.
Foggy darkness coupled with slanting rain on a curvy road made the speed limit categorically unsafe. Rather than fast and faster, I drove slow and slower as visibility lessened dramatically. And it...
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Oct.28.2012
Out of the writing loop four months –well not completely, just no blog.
Amazing how much writing one does just as a matter of course with emails, text messages, social media. It all adds up, even allows the possibility for one’s heart to spill out in little puddle syllables. Not as satisfying as...
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Jul.01.2012
It’s a yearly event –usually on Father’s Day. My son rents a pontoon boat on Lake Sonoma and up to twelve family members pile on for four hours of recreation. Usually we head right and go under the bridge, but this year we decided to avoid the jet skiers and so turned left.
Five children ages...
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May.05.2012
Howard Stern wants to interview me. He just finished reading my book Darkness Overturned and wants to know who I am NOW.
Finally, I think. Someone gets it that being a survivor of child abuse and, later, domestic violence isn’t an identity. It’s a beginning.
Oh, wait . . . it’s only a dream! Not...
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Apr.22.2012
Early morning and at dusk I am especially charmed by birdsong. Sometimes on the way home from work, slowed by traffic on the two-lane road leading into town, I hear a riotous bird choir in a tree or their lilting calls over a vineyard. It always has the same affect on me –I am momentarily...
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Mar.12.2012
For thirteen years I have had occasion to take the short walk to our neighbor’s adjoining condo –a simple few steps from our door to his.
On the weekends my husband usually makes a trip to the local bakery then shares some of the goodies with our neighbor now into his 80’s and alone since his...
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Feb.25.2012
For the most part I am realistic about my connections to people. I don’t call acquaintances friends and I don’t mistake friends for family, however close we might be or how precious I count them.
For many years I was bereft of family. My mother shrank from relationships, shriveling emotionally...
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Jan.15.2012
When I wrote my book Darkness Overturned (originally titled Light Through the Dark Glass) I was deeply religious, clinging to the reality of God as my Father –and to the church. I believed in the “straight and narrow way” and sought approval not just from the Almighty, but from church leaders...
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Jan.01.2012
On the day after Thanksgiving my husband went wine tasting. I went for a walk, needing to exercise after my blissful enjoyment of an abundance of sumptuous food. Happy inside and out, I wanted to experience the delightfully crisp air and gawk at bedazzling fall colors before the trees succumbed...
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Oct.03.2011
Happy Birthday, Austin!
You have the sometimes bemoaned distinction of being a middle child. Sandwiched in between a spirited big sister and a rambunctious younger brother . . .
What role do you take in the family?
It has often been said that middle children have to try a little harder to be heard...
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Sep.24.2011
My husband was diagnosed with fast-growth prostate cancer when in his early 50’s. The doctor took me aside and told me he probably would be dead in five years if he didn’t do something –fast!
Far too young for such a prognosis, especially since we had been married barely two years, it was a...
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Sep.04.2011
The creature darted onto the highway just in time to connect with my brother-in-law’s front bumper. His daughter heard a thump but only saw a blur out of the corner of her eye, something hairy flying in the air towards the ditch.
“What was that?” Julia asked her dad as he quickly stopped the car...
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Aug.21.2011
Today, in the 13th summer of my youngest granddaughter, she and I got into my car, put the top down, fastened our seat belts and sped away for a just-us time together. Sporting matching pink flower print hats with sparkly bling added for effect and curly pink ribbon ponytails, we waved picture-...
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Jul.31.2011
In our Women’s Circle of four, I have become the Keeper –mostly meaning that I am the one who keeps track of everyone’s birthday. But I also keep track of when we first started meeting and the number of years we’ve done so (eight years this past month).
We met a few days ago to celebrate a...
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Jul.24.2011
Even in a down-turned economy $1,000 goes a long way. But sometimes, when the $1,000 are counted in pesos, we Americans can momentary feel shorted.
South of the Boarder it costs around $99 pesos for a sack of dog food, $55 pesos for a meal at Burger King, and $49 pesos for a movie theater...
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About Patricia
Darkness Overturned is my autobiography about my efforts to break free from verbal, emotional and physical abuse, which I endured from early childhood and through several tragic marriages. My book was originally titled Light Through The Dark Glass under the...
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