Disaster Refugee All I feel like I’ve been doing is running to save my family. I think we’ve been mistaking our identity for a reality. I don’t have to measure who I am in my own eyes, but to be someone, possibly a representation of a model citizen, I seemingly have to accumulate order. But my circumstances are far from orderly. Even our bankruptcy lawyer has thrown her hands in the air, asking us, “well, what do you want me…
Excerpt: The Mountain Moved Me – book (coming soon). The glimmers of grieving me. Should I have to shoulder the costs of man made problems from the ‘will of god’ (keeping god lowercase purposely)? Or should I just focus on grieving? I just moved a mountain full of stuff. My stuff….ing. My cushy insides, as spectators walked inside my womb not knowing how to even shop. Ironically this is the opposite problem of the lower 48 – ‘how to shop’.…
Arguably Blessed(Excerpt from the book: The Mountain Moved Me) Must I have to remind myself where I belong and where I am? Longing to put on a new-to-me Little Red Riding Hood, red wool jacket in the middle of February… in Florida. I long for what I cannot have. Energetically my bones are aching, drooling over the Haines, Alaska nixle cellphone reports of a ‘winter storm warning’, 4,189 miles away from home. “Wake up, Vanessa”, I yell in my head,…
Women of Haines, Alaska(Excerpt from my book: The Mountain Moved Me) I had a dream of Haines women. We were in a big circle, one in which I was a part of. In my dream, I was ‘reading’ a friend and the tumultuous pangs of her partnership. When afterward, I circled my eyes around, witnessing these strong women of Haines, AK, warriors in their own eulogy. “We’ve been through some stuff”, I muttered through my mind’s thoughts. Noticing how tall…
Wrangell, Alaska Relief Efforts Wrangell, Alaska just went through a similar landslide to that of Haines, AK, on Nov. 21st 2023. Twelve days away from the Haines’ three year landslide memorial. To say their loss shook our remote town is an understatement. Trapped tears – frozen inside our bodies, too shocking to re-feel, tending to our nervous systems entrapped in unconscious pain. Our numbness was helpful to get us through this, but now reawakened, this time more mature, seeing where…
(Excerpt from the book: The Mountain Moved Me, by: Vanessa Wishstar) “There’s no human form of justice”, my husband sighs. It’s what I want, what I keep on searching for, the voice to speak up about this injustice. A living (thanks to God) testament that what is happening is unjust. We’re being *forced to evict ourselves. This is beyond insane of a human request. And on top of it we’ll have to watch another repossess our lives as if we…
*Excerpts from my (upcoming) book: The Mountain Moved MeAuthor: Vanessa Wishstar “Fuck baby boomer money.” There, I said it. I’ve found the corroded pot of gold, the drawknife that strips the dollar bill bark down to dust, baring the forest of a system in shame, imbalance, inequality and separation. Sure, money issues go back farther than Boomers, but holy hell it’s been doomsday since the dollar had a mouthful of opinions thinking one can give financial advice just because they…