MEMOIR

I Am From

Another corner

Photo by Adarsh Chauhan on Unsplash

I am from love. A military love story continued for 60 years.

It still carries on today despite absences,

I am from family so strong that we helped each other stand.

And when it came time for falls, we didn’t cry and hold hands; we laughed and poked and prodded because that was how we loved.

I am from a land of animals. My partners through life.

Dogs and cats mark days and count joys with purrs and nuzzles.

Ferrets are slinkies, leaving laughter and joy in their wake.

I have said goodbyes many times, but together we are better, and I choose to love again.

I am from deserts and mountains.

I have withered in the heat and dug forts in the snow.

I have gazed across miles with sage and tumbleweed as the only sign of life.

I have watched storms descend summits, and heard lightning snap like gunfire.

I am from the wild. I grew up outside, climbing rocks and mountains.

Loving campfires and fresh mountain air.

I have known elk to offer solemnity with its morning call.

I have crawled through caves and jumped from planes.

I am from words on the page.

Get Sandy Riggs’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

Remember me for faster sign in

They taught me community and connection in ways that society never would.

I have been with them in institutions where they were the only things to widen the world, and they won.

I’ve started to change the direction of the pages from inward to outward.

I wait with everyone else to see what will be.

I am from closed hearts and closed minds

I have seen religion as cold and unyielding as a cinderblock wall.

I felt for souls that sought beauty but created darkness.

I left that darkness for the light of the world.

I am from open hearts and open minds.

My tribe seeks shared experience and compassion.

They seek connection and find ways to reserve judgment

They are instant family because strangers judge.

I am from hope. Peace and happiness require it.

I hold space for my fellow man, for future generations, for those who rise while others sit.

I stand for the power of voice, and I sit and listen to hear each one.

We are all stories, and stories make the world.

I am from my beginning. It is not my end.

Every day I awake different than the day before.

Every corner I turn allows me a new from.

I simply try not to walk in circles.

Support writers. All our non-profit’s offerings here.

Brand art by Gael MacLean