Sinking your fists into the bread of life

February 12, 2016.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep The man’s tattooed arms were up to the elbows in bread dough. I could so relate. Not to the guy’s past, to his former gang life in Los Angeles, but to that feeling of fists sinking into soft dough and spirit reposing on a whiff of yeast. He is one of the […]

When Your Power Ain’t So Super, Woman

June 23, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep He wants me to wear a cape to the grocery store. “I don’t have a cape, Sweetie.” My four year old streaks out of the kitchen, the red cape I sewed flying out behind him. My next door neighbor regularly ridicules me. How the hell can I let my son run […]

Moving into Your Discomfort: When you are asking What’s Next?

May 26, 2015.Reading time 7 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep What’s next? It’s a year of transition for my family. High school and college graduations, a wedding, and a potential job change. And, for me, a sense of an impending–I hesitate to use the word–molting. (Ew, I know.) I’m shedding the skin of the first half of my life…kids grown, resume a solid […]

Don’t quit…just keep hanging your mantle in the sun

January 14, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I think about quitting. Letting go of writing like it’s some wild mammal I’ve tried to raise and train only to have it piss on the furniture and snap at my hand when I try to feed it. But who would I be if I didn’t write? I have announced, “I am a writer” […]