I have been mourning the death of a practice, of a way of living and being known, for so long that it is difficult to know when the process began, other than to say it has been a long season, spanning years instead of months, full of Indian summers and snow-filled solstices, of tasting the last red berry still warm from August sun, and of losing to despair under the heaviness of an interminable inversion.
Where is it written this is the way a practice ends? Who writes the guidelines or gives the seminars that address my questions? Where does one go for protocols and form letters and the usual “time line” for descent? Who specializes in this form of grief counseling? When was the last time a news-magazine TV show did a spot on the end of a therapist’s career? Where are the support groups?
There is a choice here: to focus on what has or is dying or to look at what is emerging; see only bitter flaking wood with skins of drab brown and pale disjointed flesh, or marvel at new and fragile membranes of intense color and aroma. I must ask myself: Are all the stalks of last year’s reeds more valuable than the emerging leaves of a single forsythia bush?
Author Bio:
ML Roberts is a retired psychologist living in Milwaukee, WI. For the better part of two decades, she practiced psychotherapy in Boise, ID. Uprooting herself from both a career and a place she loved resulted in a great deal of soul searching, followed by a feeling of loss far greater than what she anticipated.
In preparation for a change in careers, Roberts studied creative writing at Boise State University and Boise’s Log Cabin Literary Center. After making the break, she moved several times and, with each move, sought out other writers through workshops and critique groups. She is currently an active member of the All Writers’ Workshop and Workplace, in Waukesha, WI.
In addition to publishing as a professional psychologist and as a communications specialist, she has placed fiction and poetry in Cabin Fever; Boise University Radio INPRINT; Boise Weekly; Standing: Poetry by Idaho Women; and two anthologies: What Mattered Once, What Matters Now (Live Poets Society, Boise, ID) and Women with Wings (Women Writing for a Change, Bloomington, IN). Roberts holds degrees from Marshall University (B.A.), Virginia Tech (M.S.), and Penn State (Ph.D.)
Where is it written this is the way a practice ends? Who writes the guidelines or gives the seminars that address my questions? Where does one go for protocols and form letters and the usual “time line” for descent? Who specializes in this form of grief counseling? When was the last time a news-magazine TV show did a spot on the end of a therapist’s career? Where are the support groups?
There is a choice here: to focus on what has or is dying or to look at what is emerging; see only bitter flaking wood with skins of drab brown and pale disjointed flesh, or marvel at new and fragile membranes of intense color and aroma. I must ask myself: Are all the stalks of last year’s reeds more valuable than the emerging leaves of a single forsythia bush?
Author Bio:
ML Roberts is a retired psychologist living in Milwaukee, WI. For the better part of two decades, she practiced psychotherapy in Boise, ID. Uprooting herself from both a career and a place she loved resulted in a great deal of soul searching, followed by a feeling of loss far greater than what she anticipated.
In preparation for a change in careers, Roberts studied creative writing at Boise State University and Boise’s Log Cabin Literary Center. After making the break, she moved several times and, with each move, sought out other writers through workshops and critique groups. She is currently an active member of the All Writers’ Workshop and Workplace, in Waukesha, WI.
In addition to publishing as a professional psychologist and as a communications specialist, she has placed fiction and poetry in Cabin Fever; Boise University Radio INPRINT; Boise Weekly; Standing: Poetry by Idaho Women; and two anthologies: What Mattered Once, What Matters Now (Live Poets Society, Boise, ID) and Women with Wings (Women Writing for a Change, Bloomington, IN). Roberts holds degrees from Marshall University (B.A.), Virginia Tech (M.S.), and Penn State (Ph.D.)
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