Grandmother sat outside, as she was wont to do every day.

She saw her granddaughter walking toward her, and she noticed the young girl seemed angry.

She was kicking the dirt, and Grandmother could see there were streaks of tears running down her face.

February 4, 2011: The universe speaks to me constantly.

If I don’t pay attention, or listen well enough, it tends to shout. Deafeningly. Just lke I felt my Mom (pictured at left in 2009), sometimes did when I was a kid.

Still, I often don’t hear. Just like I didn't as a chlld.

Guest blog post: Soraya Chemaly is a feminist starist and media critic. She is also an insightful and thought-provoking blogger whom I greatly respect and admire. I highly recommend following her on Twitter.

This excellent piece was originally published on The Huffington Post.

Dear Girls,

If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren’t okay with it, then just wait.

You’ll find it’s fine to be alone once you’re embracing it.

We could start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library. Where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there.

By the time the Lord made woman, he was into his sixth day of working overtime.

An angel appeared and said, "Why are you spending so much time on this one?"

The Lord answered: "Have you seen my spec sheet on her....? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic, have over 200 movable parts, all replaceable and able to run on diet coke and leftovers, have a lap that can hold four children at one time, have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart - and she will do everything with only two hands."